Camel milk products in traditional and modern way

One of the last type of milk added in Codex Alimernarius was camel milk. Yet, traditionally it is known that camel milk was consumed, almost since longer time than milk from other dairy animals. But, its became treated at industrial scale only recently. So camel milk is still shared between traditional and modern way. Traditionally in desert and arid zone, camel milk was one of available type of milk and mainly consumed raw just after milking. On this basis, century, one of the first country engaged in the modernization of the camel milk production and processing was the Soviet Union- camel milk was used in sanatoriums, and for that the authorities created standards and even processed pasteurized milk. However, their approach used same conditions and parameters than for cow milk. Some scientists tried to prove that camel milk was different matrix than cow milk, but the soviet machine didn't take in account it. In years 80 more scientific studies proved that camel milk was quite different matrix. and so, need specific approach and 1undamental deep investigations. Nowadays at the world level. camel milk is still mainly consumed raw, or fermented (traditional and yogurt like), but also occasionally under ice-cream, cheese, freeze dried milk, butter and even chocolate. Traditionally camel milk called "fresh" has shelf-life of only few hours, one day, maximum in certain conditions. For producing at industrial scale, camel milk needs to have longer shelf­life. The classical way is thermic treatment, but in which conditions? For cow milk, conditions were described for Jong time, but still some novelty appeared. Pasteurization is achieved at 72-80°C for 15-30 minutes and UHT treatment at 102-140°C for 2-10 seconds. Such conditions applied to camel milk provoke regularly troubles like taste change (after some pasteurizations) or separation into 2 phases (after UHT processing). The control and adaptation of parameters to camel milk composition (indicators of pasteurization, heat stability) require specific studies. Fermented camel milk is consumed traditionally for centuries. One of the systematic problems described everywhere was irregular taste, smell and texture of the final product, sometime spoiling, difficulty to package because gas production. Such situation could be improved by using the same starters for controlling the fermentation process. For that, the production of adapted starters specific to camel milk is necessary. Indeed, Ethiopian fermented camel milk has its specific pool of indigenous lactic acid bacteria's and yeast, probably different than Kaz.akh camel milk, etc. Nowadays some dairy factories produce fermented camel milk by using starters specific for cow milk or specific for yogurts. At the end of processing, new products from camel milk are obtained but the taste is not respecting the traditional taste known for centuries by the consumers. Such situation is a risk for loosing traditional products with specific taste, smell and texture. The production of camel cheese has no traditional history. It is a very new approach proposed the first time in 1985 and described with high difficulties to coagulate camel milk. Since 2010, it is possible to get easier coagulation with specific camel enzyme and to make cheese with comparable yield to cow cheese making. However, very few dairy plants started to produce camel cheese. This is linked also to the absence of specific starters adapted for camel milk. Indeed, taste and smell of final cheese depend on the microflora, studied since more than 50 years in cow, goat and ewe milk processing, but not in camel milk. A' common point for all these products is the hygiene of raw camel milk. Traditionally, in desert conditions, nomads don't take in account all hygienic rules, or in some occasion, it is difficult to respect hygiene (absence -or few amount of drinking water, lack of convenient infrastructure). Moreover, a traditional believe was at the origin of a great legend regarding the antimicrobial activity of camel milk. It is said that camel milk has the ability to resist against some pathogenic bacteria. But, the main hygienic contamination is coming from E.coli which is able to consume camel milk and give difficulties in dairy industry for processing it. In consequence, it is important to promote basic hygiene rules for camel milk processors and their staff. (Texte intégral