Milk Powder in Bath, Shower & Soap Guide

While Marco Polo wrote of Mongolian Tatar troops in the time of Kublai Khan carrying sun-dried skimmed milk as "a kind of paste"[1], the first usable commercial production of dried milk was invented by the Russian chemist M. Dirchoff in 1832. In 1855, T.S. Grimwade took a patent on a dried milk procedure[2], though a William Newton had patented a vacuum drying process as early as 1837[3]. Today, powdered milk is usually made by spray drying[4] nonfat skim milk, whole milk, buttermilk or whey. Pasteurized milk is first concentrated in an evaporator to about 50% milk solids. The resulting concentrated milk is sprayed into a heated chamber where the water almost instantly evaporates, leaving fine particles of powdered milk solids.

Alternatively, the milk can be dried by drum drying. Milk is applied as a thin film to the surface of a heated drum, and the dried milk solids are then scraped off. Powdered milk made this way tends to have a cooked flavor, due to caramelization caused by greater heat exposure.

Another process is freeze drying, which preserves many nutrients in milk, compared to drum drying.

The drying method and the heat treatment of the milk as it is processed alters the properties of the milk powder (for example, solubility in cold water, flavor, bulk density)....