Milk is a nutrient-rich, white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for infant mammals (including humans who are breastfed) before they are able to digest other types of food. Early-lactation milk contains colostrum, which carries the mother's antibodies to its young and can reduce the risk of many diseases. It contains many other nutrients[1] including protein and lactose. Interspecies consumption of milk is not uncommon, particularly among humans, many of whom consume the milk of other mammals.[2][3]
As an agricultural product, milk, also called dairy milk, is extracted from farm animals during or soon after pregnancy. Dairy farms produced about 730 million tonnes of milk in 2011,[4] from 260 million dairy cows.[5] India is the world's largest producer of milk, and is the leading exporter of skimmed milk powder, yet it exports few other milk products.[6][7] The ever increasing rise in domestic demand for dairy products and a large demand-supply gap could lead to India being a net importer of dairy products in the future.[8] The United States, India, China and Brazil are the world's largest exporters of milk and milk products.[9] China and Russia were the world's largest importers of milk and milk products until 2016 when both countries became self-sufficient, contributing to a worldwide glut of milk.[10]
Throughout the world, more than six billion people consume milk and milk products. Over 750 million people live in dairy farming households.[11]
Etymology
The term "milk" comes from "Old English meoluc (West Saxon), milc (Anglian), from Proto-Germanic *meluks "milk" (source also of Old Norse mjolk, Old Frisian melok, Old Saxon miluk, Dutch melk, Old High German miluh, German Milch, Gothic miluks)".[12]
Types of consumption
Milk consumption occurs in two distinct overall types: a natural source of nutrition for all infant mammals and a food product obtained from other mammals for consumption by humans of all ages.
Nutrition for infant mammals

In almost all mammals, milk is fed to infants through breastfeeding, either directly or by expressing the milk to be stored and consumed later. The early milk from mammals is called colostrum. Colostrum contains antibodies that provide protection to the newborn baby as well as nutrients and growth factors.[13] The makeup of the colostrum and the period of secretion varies from species to species.[14]
For humans, the World Health Organization recommends exclusive breastfeeding for six months and breastfeeding in addition to other food for at least two years.[15] In some cultures it is common to breastfeed children for three to five years, and the period may be longer.[16]
Fresh goats' milk is sometimes substituted for breast milk, which introduces the risk of the child developing electrolyte imbalances, metabolic acidosis, megaloblastic anemia, and a host of allergic reactions.[17]
Food product for humans

In many cultures, especially in the West, humans continue to consume milk beyond infancy, using the milk of other mammals (especially cattle, goats and sheep) as a food product. Initially, the ability to digest milk was limited to children as adults did not produce lactase, an enzyme necessary for digesting the lactose in milk. People therefore converted milk to curd, cheese and other products to reduce the levels of lactose. Thousands of years ago, a chance mutation spread in human populations in Europe that enabled the production of lactase in adulthood. This mutation allowed milk to be used as a new source of nutrition which could sustain populations when other food sources failed.[18] Milk is processed into a variety of products such as cream, butter, yogurt, kefir, ice cream, and cheese. Modern industrial processes use milk to produce casein, whey protein, lactose, condensed milk, powdered milk, and many other food-additives and industrial products.
Whole milk, butter and cream have high levels of saturated fat.[19][20] The sugar lactose is found only in milk, forsythia flowers, and a few tropical shrubs. The enzyme needed to digest lactose, lactase, reaches its highest levels in the human small intestine after birth and then begins a slow decline unless milk is consumed regularly.[21] Those groups who do continue to tolerate milk, however, often have exercised great creativity in using the milk of domesticated ungulates, not only of cattle, but also sheep, goats, yaks, water buffalo, horses, reindeer and camels. India is the largest producer and consumer of cattle and buffalo milk in the world.[22]

Terminology
In food use, from 1961, the term milk has been defined under Codex Alimentarius standards as: "the normal mammary secretion of milking animals obtained from one or more milkings without either addition to it or extraction from it, intended for consumption as liquid milk or for further processing."[24] The term dairy relates to animal milk and animal milk production.
A substance secreted by pigeons to feed their young is called "crop milk" and bears some resemblance to mammalian milk, although it is not consumed as a milk substitute.[25]
Dairy milk alternatives
The definition above precludes non-animal products which resemble dairy milk in color and texture, such as almond milk, coconut milk, rice milk, and soy milk. In English, the word "milk" has been used to refer to "milk-like plant juices" since 1200 AD.[26] In the USA, (mostly plant-based) milk alternatives now command 13% of the "milk" market, leading the US dairy industry to attempt, multiple times, to sue producers of dairy milk alternatives, to have the name "milk" limited to animal milk, so far without success.[27]
Evolution of lactation
The mammary gland is thought to have derived from apocrine skin glands.[28] It has been suggested that the original function of lactation (milk production) was keeping eggs moist. Much of the argument is based on monotremes (egg-laying mammals).[28][29][30] The original adaptive significance of milk secretions may have been nutrition[31] or immunological protection.[32][33] This secretion gradually became more copious and accrued nutritional complexity over evolutionary time.[28]
Tritylodontid cynodonts seem to have displayed lactation, based on their dental replacement patterns.[34]
History

Humans first learned to consume the milk of other mammals regularly following the domestication of animals during the Neolithic Revolution or the development of agriculture. This development occurred independently in several global locations from as early as 9000–7000 BC in Mesopotamia[35] to 3500–3000 BC in the Americas.[36] People first domesticated the most important dairy animals– cattle, sheep and goats– in Southwest Asia, although domestic cattle had been independently derived from wild aurochs populations several times since.[37]  Initially animals were kept for meat, and archaeologist Andrew Sherratt has suggested that dairying, along with the exploitation of domestic animals for hair and labor, began much later in a separate secondary products revolution in the fourth millennium BC.[38] Sherratt's model is not supported by recent findings, based on the analysis of lipid residue in prehistoric pottery, that shows that dairying was practiced in the early phases of agriculture in Southwest Asia, by at least the seventh millennium BC.[39][40]
From Southwest Asia domestic dairy animals spread to Europe (beginning around 7000 BC but did not reach Britain and Scandinavia until after 4000 BC),[41] and South Asia (7000–5500 BC).[42] The first farmers in central Europe[43] and Britain[44] milked their animals. Pastoral and pastoral nomadic economies, which rely predominantly or exclusively on domestic animals and their products rather than crop farming, were developed as European farmers moved into the Pontic-Caspian steppe in the fourth millennium BC, and subsequently spread across much of the Eurasian steppe.[45] Sheep and goats were introduced to Africa from Southwest Asia, but African cattle may have been independently domesticated around 7000–6000 BC.[46] Camels, domesticated in central Arabia in the fourth millennium BC, have also been used as dairy animals in North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.[47] The earliest Egyptian records of burn treatments describe burn dressings using milk from mothers of male babies.[48] In the rest of the world (i.e., East and Southeast Asia, the Americas and Australia) milk and dairy products were historically not a large part of the diet, either because they remained populated by hunter-gatherers who did not keep animals or the local agricultural economies did not include domesticated dairy species. Milk consumption became common in these regions comparatively recently, as a consequence of European colonialism and political domination over much of the world in the last 500 years.
In the Middle Ages, milk was called the "virtuous white liquor" because alcoholic beverages were safer to consume than water.[49]
Industrialization

The growth in urban population, coupled with the expansion of the railway network in the mid-19th century, brought about a revolution in milk production and supply. Individual railway firms began transporting milk from rural areas to London from the 1840s and 1850s. Possibly the first such instance was in 1846, when St Thomas's Hospital in Southwark contracted with milk suppliers outside London to ship milk by rail.[50] The Great Western Railway was an early and enthusiastic adopter, and began to transport milk into London from Maidenhead in 1860, despite much criticism. By 1900, the company was transporting over 25 million gallons annually.[51] The milk trade grew slowly through the 1860s, but went through a period of extensive, structural change in the 1870s and 1880s.

Urban demand began to grow, as consumer purchasing power increased and milk became regarded as a required daily commodity. Over the last three decades of the 19th century, demand for milk in most parts of the country doubled, or in some cases, tripled. Legislation in 1875 made the adulteration of milk illegal – this combined with a marketing campaign to change the image of milk. The proportion of rural imports by rail as a percentage of total milk consumption in London grew from under 5% in the 1860s to over 96% by the early 20th century. By that point, the supply system for milk was the most highly organized and integrated of any food product.[50]

The first glass bottle packaging for milk was used in the 1870s. The first company to do so may have been the New York Dairy Company in 1877. The Express Dairy Company in England began glass bottle production in 1880. In 1884, Hervey Thatcher, an American inventor from New York, invented a glass milk bottle, called "Thatcher's Common Sense Milk Jar," which was sealed with a waxed paper disk.[52] Later, in 1932, plastic-coated paper milk cartons were introduced commercially.[52]
In 1863, French chemist and biologist Louis Pasteur invented pasteurization, a method of killing harmful bacteria in beverages and food products.[52] He developed this method while on summer vacation in Arbois, to remedy the frequent acidity of the local wines.[53] He found out experimentally that it is sufficient to heat a young wine to only about 50–60°C (122–140°F) for a brief time to kill the microbes, and that the wine could be nevertheless properly aged without sacrificing the final quality.[53] In honor of Pasteur, the process became known as "pasteurization". Pasteurization was originally used as a way of preventing wine and beer from souring.[54] Commercial pasteurizing equipment was produced in Germany in the 1880s, and producers adopted the process in Copenhagen and Stockholm by 1885.[55][56]
Overproduction
Continued improvements in the efficiency of milk production led to a worldwide glut of milk by 2016. Russia and China became self-sufficient and stopped importing milk. Canada has tried to restrict milk production by forcing new farmers/increased capacity to "buy in" at C$24,000 per cow. Importing milk is prohibited. The European Union theoretically stopped subsidizing dairy farming in 2015. Direct subsidies were replaced by "environmental incentives" which results in the government buying milk when the price falls to €200 per 1,000 liters (220impgal; 260U.S.gal). The United States has a voluntary insurance program that pays farmers depending upon the price of milk and the cost of feed.[10]
Sources

The females of all mammal species can by definition produce milk, but cow's milk dominates commercial production. In 2011, FAO estimates 85% of all milk worldwide was produced from cows.[57] Human milk is not produced or distributed industrially or commercially; however, human milk banks collect donated human breastmilk and redistribute it to infants who may benefit from human milk for various reasons (premature neonates, babies with allergies, metabolic diseases, etc.) but who cannot breastfeed.[58]
In the Western world, cow's milk is produced on an industrial scale and is by far the most commonly consumed form of milk. Commercial dairy farming using automated milking equipment produces the vast majority of milk in developed countries. Dairy cattle such as the Holstein have been bred selectively for increased milk production. About 90% of the dairy cows in the United States and 85% in Great Britain are Holsteins.[21] Other dairy cows in the United States include Ayrshire, Brown Swiss, Guernsey, Jersey and Milking Shorthorn (Dairy Shorthorn).
Other animal-based sources

Aside from cattle, many kinds of livestock provide milk used by humans for dairy products. These animals include buffalo, goat, sheep, camel, donkey, horse, reindeer and yak. The first four respectively produced about 11%, 2%, 1.4% and 0.2% of all milk worldwide in 2011.[57]
In Russia and Sweden, small moose dairies also exist.[59]
According to the U.S. National Bison Association, American bison (also called American buffalo) are not milked commercially;[60] however, various sources report cows resulting from cross-breeding bison and domestic cattle are good milk producers, and have been used both during the European settlement of North America[61] and during the development of commercial Beefalo in the 1970s and 1980s.[62]
Swine are almost never milked, even though their milk is similar to cow's milk and perfectly suitable for human consumption. The main reasons for this are that milking a sow's numerous small teats is very cumbersome, and that sows can not store their milk as cows can.[63] A few pig farms do sell pig cheese as a novelty item; these cheeses are exceedingly expensive.[64]
Production worldwide

In 2012, the largest producer of milk and milk products was India followed by the United States of America, China, Pakistan and Brazil.[69] All 28 European Union members together produced 153.8 million tonnes of milk in 2013, the largest by any politico-economic union.[70]
Increasing affluence in developing countries, as well as increased promotion of milk and milk products, has led to a rise in milk consumption in developing countries in recent years. In turn, the opportunities presented by these growing markets have attracted investments by multinational dairy firms. Nevertheless, in many countries production remains on a small scale and presents significant opportunities for diversification of income sources by small farms.[71] Local milk collection centers, where milk is collected and chilled prior to being transferred to urban dairies, are a good example of where farmers have been able to work on a cooperative basis, particularly in countries such as India.[72]
Production yields

FAO reports[57] Israel dairy farms are the most productive in the world, with a yield of 12,546 kilograms (27,659lb) milk per cow per year. This survey over 2001 and 2007 was conducted by ICAR (International Committee for Animal Recording)[73] across 17 developed countries. The survey found that the average herd size in these developed countries increased from 74 to 99 cows per herd between 2001 and 2007. A dairy farm had an average of 19 cows per herd in Norway, and 337 in New Zealand. Annual milk production in the same period increased from 7,726 to 8,550kg (17,033 to 18,850lb) per cow in these developed countries. The lowest average production was in New Zealand at 3,974kg (8,761lb) per cow. The milk yield per cow depended on production systems, nutrition of the cows, and only to a minor extent different genetic potential of the animals. What the cow ate made the most impact on the production obtained. New Zealand cows with the lowest yield per year grazed all year, in contrast to Israel with the highest yield where the cows ate in barns with an energy-rich mixed diet.
The milk yield per cow in the United States, the world's largest cow milk producer, was 9,954kg (21,945lb) per year in 2010. In contrast, the milk yields per cow in India and China – the second and third largest producers – were respectively 1,154kg (2,544lb) and 2,282kg (5,031lb) per year.[74]
Price
It was reported in 2007 that with increased worldwide prosperity and the competition of bio-fuel production for feed stocks, both the demand for and the price of milk had substantially increased worldwide. Particularly notable was the rapid increase of consumption of milk in China and the rise of the price of milk in the United States above the government subsidized price.[75] In 2010 the Department of Agriculture predicted farmers would receive an average of $1.35 per U.S. gallon of cow's milk (35 cents per liter), which is down 30 cents per gallon from 2007 and below the break-even point for many cattle farmers.[76]
Physical and chemical properties

Milk is an emulsion or colloid of butterfat globules within a water-based fluid that contains dissolved carbohydrates and protein aggregates with minerals.[77] Because it is produced as a food source for the young, all of its contents provide benefits for growth. The principal requirements are energy (lipids, lactose, and protein), biosynthesis of non-essential amino acids supplied by proteins (essential amino acids and amino groups), essential fatty acids, vitamins and inorganic elements, and water.[78]
pH
The pH of milk ranges from 6.4 to 6.8 and it changes over time. Milk from other bovines and non-bovine mammals varies in composition, but has a similar pH.
Lipids

Initially milk fat is secreted in the form of a fat globule surrounded by a membrane.[79] Each fat globule is composed almost entirely of triacylglycerols and is surrounded by a membrane consisting of complex lipids such as phospholipids, along with proteins. These act as emulsifiers which keep the individual globules from coalescing and protect the contents of these globules from various enzymes in the fluid portion of the milk. Although 97–98% of lipids are triacylglycerols, small amounts of di- and monoacylglycerols, free cholesterol and cholesterol esters, free fatty acids, and phospholipids are also present. Unlike protein and carbohydrates, fat composition in milk varies widely in the composition due to genetic, lactational, and nutritional factor difference between different species.[79]
Like composition, fat globules vary in size from less than 0.2 to about 15 micrometers in diameter between different species. Diameter may also vary between animals within a species and at different times within a milking of a single animal. In unhomogenized cow's milk, the fat globules have an average diameter of two to four micrometers and with homogenization, average around 0.4 micrometers.[79] The fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K along with essential fatty acids such as linoleic and linolenic acid are found within the milk fat portion of the milk.[21]
Proteins
Normal bovine milk contains 30–35grams of protein per liter of which about 80% is arranged in casein micelles. Total proteins in milk represent 3.2% of its composition (nutrition table).
Caseins

The largest structures in the fluid portion of the milk are "casein micelles": aggregates of several thousand protein molecules with superficial resemblance to a surfactant micelle, bonded with the help of nanometer-scale particles of calcium phosphate. Each casein micelle is roughly spherical and about a tenth of a micrometer across. There are four different types of casein proteins: αs1-, αs2-, β-, and κ-caseins. Collectively, they make up around 76–86%[78] of the protein in milk, by weight. Most of the casein proteins are bound into the micelles. There are several competing theories regarding the precise structure of the micelles, but they share one important feature: the outermost layer consists of strands of one type of protein, k-casein, reaching out from the body of the micelle into the surrounding fluid. These kappa-casein molecules all have a negative electrical charge and therefore repel each other, keeping the micelles separated under normal conditions and in a stable colloidal suspension in the water-based surrounding fluid.[21][80]
Milk contains dozens of other types of proteins beside caseins and including enzymes. These other proteins are more water-soluble than caseins and do not form larger structures. Because the proteins remain suspended in whey remaining when caseins coagulate into curds, they are collectively known as whey proteins. Whey proteins make up approximately 20% of the protein in milk by weight. Lactoglobulin is the most common whey protein by a large margin.[21]
Salts, minerals, and vitamins
Minerals or milk salts, are traditional names for a variety of cations and anions within bovine milk. Calcium, phosphate, magnesium, sodium, potassium, citrate, and chloride are all included as minerals and they typically occur at concentration of 5–40 mM. The milk salts strongly interact with casein, most notably calcium phosphate. It is present in excess and often, much greater excess of solubility of solid calcium phosphate.[78] In addition to calcium, milk is a good source of many other vitamins. Vitamins A, B6, B12, C, D, K, E, thiamine, niacin, biotin, riboflavin, folates, and pantothenic acid are all present in milk.
Calcium phosphate structure
For many years the most accepted theory of the structure of a micelle was that it was composed of spherical casein aggregates, called submicelles, that were held together by calcium phosphate linkages. However, there are two recent models of the casein micelle that refute the distinct micellular structures within the micelle.
The first theory attributed to de Kruif and Holt, proposes that nanoclusters of calcium phosphate and the phosphopeptide fraction of beta-casein are the centerpiece to micellular structure. Specifically in this view, unstructured proteins organize around the calcium phosphate giving rise to their structure and thus no specific structure is formed.
The second theory proposed by Horne, the growth of calcium phosphate nanoclusters begins the process of micelle formation but is limited by binding phosphopeptide loop regions of the caseins. Once bound, protein-protein interactions are formed and polymerization occurs, in which K-casein is used as an end cap, to form micelles with trapped calcium phosphate nanoclusters.
Some sources indicate that the trapped calcium phosphate is in the form of Ca9(PO4)6;
whereas, others say it is similar to the structure of the mineral brushite CaHPO4 -2H2O.[81]
Sugars and carbohydrates

Milk contains several different carbohydrate including lactose, glucose, galactose, and other oligosaccharides. The lactose gives milk its sweet taste and contributes approximately 40% of whole cow's milk's calories. Lactose is a disaccharide composite of two simple sugars, glucose and galactose. Bovine milk averages 4.8% anhydrous lactose, which amounts to about 50% of the total solids of skimmed milk. Levels of lactose are dependent upon the type of milk as other carbohydrates can be present at higher concentrations than lactose in milks.[78]
Miscellaneous contents
Other components found in raw cow's milk are living white blood cells, mammary gland cells, various bacteria, and a large number of active enzymes.[21]
Appearance
Both the fat globules and the smaller casein micelles, which are just large enough to deflect light, contribute to the opaque white color of milk. The fat globules contain some yellow-orange carotene, enough in some breeds (such as Guernsey and Jersey cattle) to impart a golden or "creamy" hue to a glass of milk. The riboflavin in the whey portion of milk has a greenish color, which sometimes can be discerned in skimmed milk or whey products.[21] Fat-free skimmed milk has only the casein micelles to scatter light, and they tend to scatter shorter-wavelength blue light more than they do red, giving skimmed milk a bluish tint.[80]
Processing

In most Western countries, centralized dairy facilities process milk and products obtained from milk, such as cream, butter, and cheese. In the U.S., these dairies usually are local companies, while in the Southern Hemisphere facilities may be run by large multi-national corporations such as Fonterra.
Pasteurization

Pasteurization is used to kill harmful pathogenic bacteria by heating the milk for a short time and then immediately cooling it. Types of pasteurized milk include full cream, reduced fat, skim milk, calcium enriched, flavored, and UHT.[82] The standard high temperature short time (HTST) process of 72°C for 15 seconds completely kills pathogenic bacteria in milk,[83] rendering it safe to drink for up to three weeks if continually refrigerated.[84] Dairies print best before dates on each container, after which stores remove any unsold milk from their shelves.
A side effect of the heating of pasteurization is that some vitamin and mineral content is lost. Soluble calcium and phosphorus decrease by 5%, thiamin and vitamin B12 by 10%, and vitamin C by 20%.[85] Because losses are small in comparison to the large amount of the two B-vitamins present, milk continues to provide significant amounts of thiamin and vitamin B12. The loss of vitamin C is not nutritionally significant, as milk is not an important dietary source of vitamin C.
Filtration
Microfiltration is a process that partially replaces pasteurization and produces milk with fewer microorganisms and longer shelf life without a change in the taste of the milk. In this process, cream is separated from the skimmed milk and is pasteurized in the usual way, but the skimmed milk is forced through ceramic microfilters that trap 99.9% of microorganisms in the milk[86] (as compared to 99.999% killing of microorganisms in standard HTST pasteurization).[87] The skimmed milk then is recombined with the pasteurized cream to reconstitute the original milk composition.
Ultrafiltration uses finer filters than microfiltration, which allow lactose and water to pass through while retaining fats, calcium and protein.[88] As with microfiltration, the fat may be removed before filtration and added back in afterwards.[89] Ultrafiltered milk is used is cheesemaking, since it has reduced volume for a given protein content, and is sold directly to consumers as a higher protein, lower sugar content, and creamier alternative to regular milk.[90]
Creaming and homogenization

Upon standing for 12 to 24 hours, fresh milk has a tendency to separate into a high-fat cream layer on top of a larger, low-fat milk layer. The cream often is sold as a separate product with its own uses. Today the separation of the cream from the milk usually is accomplished rapidly in centrifugal cream separators. The fat globules rise to the top of a container of milk because fat is less dense than water. The smaller the globules, the more other molecular-level forces prevent this from happening. In fact, the cream rises in cow's milk much more quickly than a simple model would predict: rather than isolated globules, the fat in the milk tends to form into clusters containing about a million globules, held together by a number of minor whey proteins.[21] These clusters rise faster than individual globules can. The fat globules in milk from goats, sheep, and water buffalo do not form clusters as readily and are smaller to begin with, resulting in a slower separation of cream from these milks.[21]
Milk often is homogenized, a treatment that prevents a cream layer from separating out of the milk. The milk is pumped at high pressures through very narrow tubes, breaking up the fat globules through turbulence and cavitation.[91] A greater number of smaller particles possess more total surface area than a smaller number of larger ones, and the original fat globule membranes cannot completely cover them. Casein micelles are attracted to the newly exposed fat surfaces. Nearly one-third of the micelles in the milk end up participating in this new membrane structure. The casein weighs down the globules and interferes with the clustering that accelerated separation. The exposed fat globules are vulnerable to certain enzymes present in milk, which could break down the fats and produce rancid flavors. To prevent this, the enzymes are inactivated by pasteurizing the milk immediately before or during homogenization.
Homogenized milk tastes blander but feels creamier in the mouth than unhomogenized. It is whiter and more resistant to developing off flavors.[21] Creamline (or cream-top) milk is unhomogenized. It may or may not have been pasteurized. Milk that has undergone high-pressure homogenization, sometimes labeled as "ultra-homogenized", has a longer shelf life than milk that has undergone ordinary homogenization at lower pressures.[92]
The homogenization process increases the shelf life of milk because it decreases the radius of fat globules and other particles (per Stokes's law) thus delaying the rate of agglomeration.
UHT
Ultra Heat Treatment (UHT), is a type of milk processing where all bacteria are destroyed with high heat to extend its shelf life for up to 6 months, as long as the package is not opened. Milk is firstly homogenized and then is heated to 138 degrees Celsius for 1–3 seconds. The milk is immediately cooled down and packed into a sterile container. As a result of this treatment, all the pathogenic bacteria within the milk are destroyed, unlike when the milk is just pasteurised. The milk will now keep for up for 6 months if unopened. UHT milk does not need to be refrigerated until the package is opened, which makes it easier to ship and store. But in this process there is a loss of vitamin B1 and vitamin C and there is also a slight change in the taste of the milk.[93]
Nutrition and health

The composition of milk differs widely among species. Factors such as the type of protein; the proportion of protein, fat, and sugar; the levels of various vitamins and minerals; and the size of the butterfat globules, and the strength of the curd are among those that may vary.[23] For example:
Human milk contains, on average, 1.1% protein, 4.2% fat, 7.0% lactose (a sugar), and supplies 72 kcal of energy per 100 grams.
Cow's milk contains, on average, 3.4% protein, 3.6% fat, and 4.6% lactose, 0.7% minerals[94] and supplies 66kcal of energy per 100grams. See also Nutritional value further on
Donkey and horse milk have the lowest fat content, while the milk of seals and whales may contain more than 50% fat.[95]

Cow's milk
These compositions vary by breed, animal, and point in the lactation period.

The protein range for these four breeds is 3.3% to 3.9%, while the lactose range is 4.7% to 4.9%.[21]
Milk fat percentages may be manipulated by dairy farmers' stock diet formulation strategies. Mastitis infection can cause fat levels to decline.[96]
Nutritional value

Processed cow's milk was formulated to contain differing amounts of fat during the 1950s. One cup (250mL) of 2%-fat cow's milk contains 285mg of calcium, which represents 22% to 29% of the daily recommended intake (DRI) of calcium for an adult. Depending on its age, milk contains 8grams of protein, and a number of other nutrients (either naturally or through fortification) including:
Biotin
Iodine
Magnesium
Pantothenic acid
Potassium
Riboflavin
Selenium
Thiamine
Vitamin A
Vitamin B12
Vitamins D
Vitamin K
The amount of calcium from milk that is absorbed by the human body is disputed.[102] Calcium from dairy products has a greater bioavailability than calcium from certain vegetables, such as spinach, that contain high levels of calcium-chelating agents,[103] but a similar or lesser bioavailability than calcium from low-oxalate vegetables such as kale, broccoli, or other vegetables in the genus Brassica.[104][105]
Milk as a calcium source has been questioned in media, but scientific research is lacking to support the hypothesis of acidosis induced by milk. The hypothesis in question being that acidosis would lead to leeching of calcium storages in bones to neutralize pH levels (also known as acid-ash hypothesis).
Research has found no link between metabolic acidosis and consumption of milk.[106][107][108]
Recommended consumption
The U.S. federal government document Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010[109] recommends consumption of three glasses of fat-free or low-fat milk for adults and children 9 and older (less for younger children) per day. This recommendation is disputed by some health researchers who call for more study of the issue, given that there are other sources for calcium and vitamin D. The researchers also claim that the recommendations have been unduly influenced by the American dairy industry,[110] and that whole milk may be better for health due to its increased ability to satiate hunger.
Medical research
A 2008 review found evidence suggesting that consumption of milk is effective at promoting muscle growth.[111] Some studies have suggested that conjugated linoleic acid, which can be found in dairy products, is an effective supplement for reducing body fat.[112] With regards to the claim of milk promoting stronger bones, there has been no association between milk consumption or excess calcium intake[113] and a reduced risk of bone fractures.
In 2011, The Journal of Bone and Mineral Research published a meta-analysis examining whether milk consumption might protect against hip fracture in middle-aged and older adults. Studies could find no association between drinking milk and lower rates of fractures.[114] In 2014, JAMA Pediatrics published a report after monitoring almost 100,000 men and women for more than two decades. Subjects were asked to report on how much milk they had consumed as teenagers, and were followed to see if there is any association with a reduced chance of hip fractures later in life, it found there was not any.[115][116] A study published in The BMJ that followed more than 45,000 men and 61,000 women in Sweden age 39 and older had similar results. Milk consumption in adults was associated with no protection for men, and an increased risk of fractures in women. The risk of any bone fracture increased 16% in women who drank three or more glasses daily, and the risk of a broken hip increased 60%. It was also associated with an increased risk of death in both sexes.[116]
Milk and dairy products have the potential for causing serious infection in newborn infants. Unpasteurized milk and cheeses can promote the growth of Listeria bacteria. Listeria monocytogenes can also cause serious infection in an infant and pregnant woman and can be transmitted to her infant in utero or after birth. The infection has the potential of seriously harming or even causing the death of a preterm infant, an infant of low or very low birth weight, or an infant with an immune system defect or a congenital defect of the immune system. The presence of this pathogen can sometimes be determined by the symptoms that appear as a gastrointestinal illness in the mother. The mother can also acquire infection from ingesting food that contains other animal products such as, hot dogs, delicatessen meats, and cheese.[117]
Lactose intolerance

Lactose, the disaccharide sugar component of all milk, must be cleaved in the small intestine by the enzyme lactase, in order for its constituents, galactose and glucose, to be absorbed. Lactose intolerance is a condition in which people have symptoms due to not enough of the enzyme lactase in the small intestines.[118] Those affected vary in the amount of lactose they can tolerate before symptoms develop. These may include abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea, gas, and nausea. Severity depends on the amount a person eats or drinks.[119] Those affected are usually able to drink at least one cup of milk without developing significant symptoms, with greater amounts tolerated if drunk with a meal or throughout the day.[119][120]
Lactose intolerance does not cause damage to the gastrointestinal tract.[121] There are four types: primary, secondary, developmental, and congenital. Primary lactose intolerance is when the amount of lactase decline as people age. Secondary lactose intolerance is due to injury to the small intestine such as from infection, celiac disease, inflammatory bowel disease, or other diseases.[119][122] Developmental lactose intolerance may occur in premature babies and usually improves over a short period of time. Congenital lactose intolerance is an extremely rare genetic disorder in which little or no lactase is made from birth.[119] When lactose intolerance is due to secondary lactase deficiency, treatment of the underlying disease allows lactase activity to return to normal levels.[123] Lactose intolerance is different from a milk allergy.[119]
The number of people with lactose intolerance is unknown.[124] Some human populations have developed lactase persistence, in which lactase production continues into adulthood probably as a response to the benefits of being able to digest milk from farm animals.[118] The percentage of the population that has a decrease in lactase as they age is less than 10% in Northern Europe and as high as 95% in parts of Asia and Africa.[118]
Possible harms

Some studies suggest that milk consumption may increase the risk of suffering from certain health problems. Cow's milk allergy (CMA) is an immunologically mediated adverse reaction, rarely fatal, to one or more cow's milk proteins.[125] Milk from any mammal contains amino acids and microRNA which influence the drinker's metabolism and growth;[126] this "programming" is beneficial for milk's natural consumers, namely infants of the same species as the milk producer, but post-infancy and trans-species milk consumption affects the mTORC1 metabolic pathway and may promote diseases of civilization such as obesity and diabetes.[126][127]
Milk contains exogenous opioid peptides called exorphins which include opioid food peptides like Gluten exorphin and opioid food peptides. Exorphins mimic the actions of endorphines because they bind to the same opioid receptors in the brain. The exorphin in milk is called casein, a substance that breaks down in the human stomach to produce the opioid peptide casomorphin. In the early 1990s it was hypothesized that casomorphin can cause or aggravate autism spectrum disorders,[128][129] and casein-free diets are widely promoted. Studies supporting these claims have had significant flaws, and the data are inadequate to guide autism treatment recommendations.[129][130]
The most recent assessment by the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research found that most individual epidemiological studies showed increased risk of prostate cancer with increased intake of milk or dairy products.[131] "Meta-analysis of cohort data produced evidence of a clear dose-response relationship between advanced/aggressive cancer risk with milk intake, and between all prostate cancer risk and milk and dairy products." Possible mechanisms proposed included inhibition of the conversion of vitamin D to its active metabolite, 1,25- dihydroxy vitamin D3 by calcium (which some evidence suggests increases cell proliferation in the prostate), and elevation of levels of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1).[131] Several sources suggest a correlation between high calcium intake from milk, in particular, and prostate cancer,[132][133][134] consistent with a calcium/vitamin D based mechanism. Overall, the WCRF/AICR panel concluded that "The evidence is inconsistent from both cohort and case-control studies. There is limited evidence suggesting that milk and dairy products are a cause of prostate cancer."[131]
Flavored milk in U.S. schools
Milk must be offered at every meal if a United States school district wishes to get reimbursement from the federal government.[135] A quarter of the largest school districts in the U.S. offer rice or soy milk and almost 17% of all U.S. school districts offer lactose-free milk. Of the milk served in U.S. school cafeterias, 71% is flavored, causing some school districts to propose a ban because flavored milk has added sugars. (Though some flavored milk products use artificial sweeteners instead.) The Boulder, Colorado, school district banned flavored milk in 2009 and instead installed a dispenser that keeps the milk colder.[135]
Bovine growth hormone supplementation
Since November 1993, recombinant bovine somatotropin (rbST), also called rBGH, has been sold to dairy farmers with FDA approval. Cows produce bovine growth hormone naturally, but some producers administer an additional recombinant version of BGH which is produced through genetically engineered E. coli to increase milk production. Bovine growth hormone also stimulates liver production of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1). The U.S. Food and Drug Administration,[136] the National Institutes of Health[137] and the World Health Organization[138] have reported that both of these compounds are safe for human consumption at the amounts present.
Milk from cows given rBST may be sold in the United States, and the FDA stated that no significant difference has been shown between milk derived from rBST-treated and that from non-rBST-treated cows.[139] Milk that advertises that it comes from cows not treated with rBST, is required to state this finding on its label.
Cows receiving rBGH supplements may more frequently contract an udder infection known as mastitis.[140] Problems with mastitis have led to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan banning milk from rBST treated cows. Mastitis, among other diseases, may be responsible for the fact that levels of white blood cells in milk vary naturally.[141][142]
rBGH is also banned in the European Union.[143]
Criticism

Vegans and some other vegetarians do not consume milk for reasons mostly related to animal rights and environmental concerns. They may object to features of dairy farming including the necessity of keeping dairy cows pregnant, the killing of almost all the male offspring of dairy cows (either by disposal soon after birth, for veal production, or for beef), the routine separation of mother and calf soon after birth, other perceived inhumane treatment of dairy cattle, and culling of cows after their productive lives.[144]
Some have criticized the American government's promotion of milk consumption. Their main concern is the financial interest that the American government has taken in the dairy industry, promoting milk as the best source of calcium. All United States schools that are a part of the federally funded National School Lunch Act are required by the federal government to provide milk for all students. The Office of Dietary Supplements recommends that healthy adults between ages 19 and 50 get about 1,000mg of calcium per day.[145]
Milk production is also resource intensive. On a global weighted average, for the production of a given volume of milk, a thousand times as much water has to be used.[146]
Varieties and brands

Milk products are sold in a number of varieties based on types/degrees of:
additives (e.g. vitamins, flavorings)
age (e.g. cheddar, old cheddar)
coagulation (e.g. cottage cheese)
farming method (e.g. organic, grass-fed)
fat content (e.g. half and half, 3% fat milk, 2% milk, 1% milk, skim milk)
fermentation (e.g. buttermilk)
flavoring (e.g. chocolate and strawberry)
homogenization (e.g. cream top)
packaging (e.g. bottle, carton, bag)
pasteurization (e.g. raw milk, pasteurized milk)
reduction or elimination of lactose
species (e.g. cow, goat, sheep)
sweetening (e.g., chocolate and strawberry milk)
water content (e.g. dry milk powder, condensed milk, ultrafiltered milk)
Milk preserved by the UHT process does not need to be refrigerated before opening and has a much longer shelf life (six months) than milk in ordinary packaging. It is typically sold unrefrigerated in the UK, U.S., Europe, Latin America, and Australia.
Reduction or elimination of lactose
Lactose-free milk can be produced by passing milk over lactase enzyme bound to an inert carrier. Once the molecule is cleaved, there are no lactose ill effects. Forms are available with reduced amounts of lactose (typically 30% of normal), and alternatively with nearly 0%. The only noticeable difference from regular milk is a slightly sweeter taste due to the generation of glucose by lactose cleavage. It does not, however, contain more glucose, and is nutritionally identical to regular milk.
Finland, where approximately 17% of the Finnish-speaking population has hypolactasia,[147] has had "HYLA" (acronym for hydrolysed lactose) products available for many years. Lactose of low-lactose level cow's milk products, ranging from ice cream to cheese, is enzymatically hydrolysed into glucose and galactose. The ultra-pasteurization process, combined with aseptic packaging, ensures a long shelf life. In 2001, Valio launched a lactose-free milk drink that is not sweet like HYLA milk but has the fresh taste of ordinary milk. Valio patented the chromatographic separation method to remove lactose. Valio also markets these products in Sweden, Estonia, Belgium,[148] and the United States, where the company says ultrafiltration is used.[149]
In the UK, where an estimated 4.7% of the population are affected by lactose intolerance,[150] Lactofree produces milk, cheese, and yogurt products that contain only 0.03% lactose.
To aid digestion in those with lactose intolerance, milk with added bacterial cultures such as Lactobacillus acidophilus ("acidophilus milk") and bifidobacteria ("a/B milk") is available in some areas.[151] Another milk with Lactococcus lactis bacteria cultures ("cultured buttermilk") often is used in cooking to replace the traditional use of naturally soured milk, which has become rare due to the ubiquity of pasteurization, which also kills the naturally occurring Lactococcus bacteria.[152]
Lactose-free and lactose-reduced milk can also be produced via ultra filtration, which removes smaller molecules such as lactose and water while leaving calcium and proteins behind. Milk produced via these methods has a lower sugar content than regular milk.[88]
Additives and flavoring
In areas where the cattle (and often the people) live indoors, commercially sold milk commonly has vitamin D added to it to make up for lack of exposure to UVB radiation.
Reduced-fat milks often have added vitamin A palmitate to compensate for the loss of the vitamin during fat removal; in the United States this results in reduced fat milks having a higher vitamin A content than whole milk.[153]
Milk often has flavoring added to it for better taste or as a means of improving sales. Chocolate milk has been sold for many years and has been followed more recently by strawberry milk and others. Some nutritionists have criticized flavored milk for adding sugar, usually in the form of high-fructose corn syrup, to the diets of children who are already commonly obese in the U.S.[154]
Distribution

Due to the short shelf life of normal milk, it used to be delivered to households daily in many countries; however, improved refrigeration at home, changing food shopping patterns because of supermarkets, and the higher cost of home delivery mean that daily deliveries by a milkman are no longer available in most countries.
Australia and New Zealand
In Australia and New Zealand, prior to metrication, milk was generally distributed in 1 pint (568mL) glass bottles. In Australia and Ireland there was a government funded "free milk for school children" program, and milk was distributed at morning recess in 1/3 pint bottles. With the conversion to metric measures, the milk industry were concerned that the replacement of the pint bottles with 500mL bottles would result in a 13.6% drop in milk consumption; hence, all pint bottles were recalled and replaced by 600mL bottles. With time, due to the steadily increasing cost of collecting, transporting, storing and cleaning glass bottles, they were replaced by cardboard cartons. A number of designs were used, including a tetrahedron which could be close-packed without waste space, and could not be knocked over accidentally. (slogan: No more crying over spilt milk.) However, the industry eventually settled on a design similar to that used in the United States.[155]
Milk is now available in a variety of sizes in paperboard milk cartons (250mL, 375mL, 600mL, 1 liter and 1.5 liters) and plastic bottles (1, 2 and 3 liters). A significant addition to the marketplace has been "long-life" milk (UHT), generally available in 1 and 2 liter rectangular cardboard cartons. In urban and suburban areas where there is sufficient demand, home delivery is still available, though in suburban areas this is often 3 times per week rather than daily. Another significant and popular addition to the marketplace has been flavored milks – for example, as mentioned above, Farmers Union Iced Coffee outsells Coca-Cola in South Australia.
India
In rural India, milk is home delivered, daily, by local milkmen carrying bulk quantities in a metal container, usually on a bicycle. In other parts of metropolitan India, milk is usually bought or delivered in plastic bags or cartons via shops or supermarkets.
The current milk chain flow in India is from milk producer to milk collection agent. Then it is transported to a milk chilling center and bulk transported to the processing plant, then to the sales agent and finally to the consumer.
A 2011 survey by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India found that nearly 70% of samples had not conformed to the standards set for milk. The study found that due to lack of hygiene and sanitation in milk handling and packaging, detergents (used during cleaning operations) were not washed properly and found their way into the milk. About 8% of samples in the survey were found to have detergents, which are hazardous to health.[156]
Pakistan
In Pakistan, milk is supplied in jugs. Milk has been a staple food, especially among the pastoral tribes in this country.
United Kingdom
Since the late 1990s, milk-buying patterns have changed drastically in the UK. The classic milkman, who travels his local milk round (route) using a milk float (often battery powered) during the early hours and delivers milk in 1 pint glass bottles with aluminium foil tops directly to households, has almost disappeared. Two of the main reasons for the decline of UK home deliveries by milkmen are household refrigerators (which lessen the need for daily milk deliveries) and private car usage (which has increased supermarket shopping). Another factor is that it is cheaper to purchase milk from a supermarket than from home delivery. In 1996, more than 2.5 billion liters of milk were still being delivered by milkmen, but by 2006 only 637 million liters (13% of milk consumed) was delivered by some 9,500 milkmen.[157] By 2010, the estimated number of milkmen had dropped to 6,000.[158] Assuming that delivery per milkman is the same as it was in 2006, this means milkmen deliveries now only account for 6–7% of all milk consumed by UK households (6.7 billion liters in 2008/2009).[159]
Almost 95% of all milk in the UK is thus sold in shops today, most of it in plastic bottles of various sizes, but some also in milk cartons. Milk is hardly ever sold in glass bottles in UK shops.
United States

In the United States, glass milk bottles have been replaced mostly with milk cartons and plastic jugs. Gallons of milk are almost always sold in jugs, while half gallons and quarts may be found in both paper cartons and plastic jugs, and smaller sizes are almost always in cartons.
The "half pint" (237mL, 5⁄12imppt) milk carton is the traditional unit as a component of school lunches, though some companies have replaced that unit size with a plastic bottle, which is also available at retail in 6- and 12-pack size.
Packaging

Glass milk bottles are now rare. Most people purchase milk in bags, plastic bottles, or plastic-coated paper cartons. Ultraviolet (UV) light from fluorescent lighting can alter the flavor of milk, so many companies that once distributed milk in transparent or highly translucent containers are now using thicker materials that block the UV light.
Milk comes in a variety of containers with local variants:
Argentina
Commonly sold in 1 liter bags and cardboard boxes. The bag is then placed in a plastic jug and the corner cut off before the milk is poured.
Australia and New Zealand
Distributed in a variety of sizes, most commonly in aseptic cartons for up to 1.5 liters, and plastic screw-top bottles beyond that with the following volumes; 1.1L, 2L, and 3L. 1 liter milk bags are starting to appear in supermarkets, but have not yet proved popular. Most UHT-milk is packed in 1 or 2 liter paper containers with a sealed plastic spout.[155]
Brazil
Used to be sold in cooled 1 liter bags, just like in South Africa. Today the most common form is 1 liter aseptic cartons containing UHT skimmed, semi-skimmed or whole milk, although the plastic bags are still in use for pasteurized milk. Higher grades of pasteurized milk can be found in cartons or plastic bottles. Sizes other than 1 liter are rare.
Canada
1.33 liter plastic bags (sold as 4 liters in 3 bags) are widely available in some areas (especially the Maritimes, Ontario and Quebec), although the 4 liter plastic jug has supplanted them in western Canada. Other common packaging sizes are 2 liter, 1 liter, 500 mL, and 250 mL cartons, as well as 4 liter, 1 liter, 250mL aseptic cartons and 500mL plastic jugs.
Chile
Distributed most commonly in aseptic cartons for up to 1 liter, but smaller, snack-sized cartons are also popular. The most common flavors, besides the natural presentation, are chocolate, strawberry and vanilla.
China
Sweetened milk is a drink popular with students of all ages and is often sold in small plastic bags complete with straw. Adults not wishing to drink at a banquet often drink milk served from cartons or milk tea.
Colombia
Sells milk in 1 liter plastic bags.
Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro
UHT milk (trajno mlijeko/trajno mleko/трајно млеко) is sold in 500mL and 1L (sometimes also 200 mL) aseptic cartons. Non-UHT pasteurized milk (svježe mlijeko/sveže mleko/свеже млеко) is most commonly sold in 1L and 1.5L PET bottles, though in Serbia one can still find milk in plastic bags.
Estonia
Commonly sold in 1 L bags or 0.33 L, 0.5 L, 1 L or 1.5 L cartons.
Parts of Europe
Sizes of 500 mL, 1 liter (the most common), 1.5 liters, 2 liters and 3 liters are commonplace.
Finland
Commonly sold in 1 L or 1.5 L cartons, in some places also in 2dl and 5dl cartons.
Germany
Commonly sold in 1-liter cartons. Sale in 1-liter plastic bags (common in the 1980s) now rare.
Hong Kong
Milk is sold in glass bottles (220 mL), cartons (236 mL and 1L), plastic jugs (2 liters) and aseptic cartons (250mL).
India
Commonly sold in 500 mL plastic bags and in bottles in some parts like in west. It is still customary to serve the milk boiled, despite pasteurization. Milk is often buffalo milk. Flavored milk is sold in most convenience stores in waxed cardboard containers. Convenience stores also sell many varieties of milk (such as flavored and ultra-pasteurized) in different sizes, usually in aseptic cartons.
Indonesia
Usually sold in 1 liter cartons, but smaller, snack-sized cartons are available.
Israel

Non-UHT milk is most commonly sold in 1 liter waxed cardboard boxes and 1 liter plastic bags. It may also be found in 1.5L and 2L waxed cardboard boxes, 2L plastic jugs and 1 L plastic bottles. UHT milk is available in 1 liter (and less commonly also in 0.5L) carton "bricks".
Japan
Commonly sold in 1 liter waxed paperboard cartons. In most city centers there is also home delivery of milk in glass jugs. As seen in China, sweetened and flavored milk drinks are commonly seen in vending machines.
Kenya
Milk in Kenya is mostly sold in plastic-coated aseptic paper cartons supplied in 300 mL, 500 mL or 1 liter volumes. In rural areas, milk is stored in plastic bottles or gourds.[160][161] The standard unit of measuring milk quantity in Kenya is a liter.
Pakistan
Milk is supplied in 500 mL plastic bags and carried in jugs from rural to cities for selling
Philippines
Milk is supplied in 1000 mL plastic bottles and delivered from factories to cities for selling.
Poland
UHT milk is mostly sold in aseptic cartons (500mL, 1L, 2L), and non-UHT in 1L plastic bags or plastic bottles. Milk, UHT is commonly boiled, despite being pasteurized.
South Africa
Commonly sold in 1 liter bags. The bag is then placed in a plastic jug and the corner cut off before the milk is poured.
South Korea
Sold in cartons (180mL, 200mL, 500mL 900mL, 1L, 1.8L, 2.3L), plastic jugs (1L and 1.8L), aseptic cartons (180 mL and 200 mL) and plastic bags (1 L).
Sweden

Commonly sold in 0.3L, 1L or 1.5L cartons and sometimes as plastic or glass milk bottles.
Turkey
Commonly sold in 500 mL or 1L cartons or special plastic bottles. UHT milk is more popular. Milkmen also serve in smaller towns and villages.
United Kingdom
Most stores stock imperial sizes: 1 pint (568mL), 2 pints (1.136L), 4 pints (2.273L), 6 pints (3.408L) or a combination including both metric and imperial sizes. Glass milk bottles delivered to the doorstep by the milkman are typically pint-sized and are returned empty by the householder for repeated reuse. Milk is sold at supermarkets in either aseptic cartons or HDPE bottles. Supermarkets have also now begun to introduce milk in bags, to be poured from a proprietary jug and nozzle.
United States
Commonly sold in gallon (3.78L), half-gallon (1.89L) and quart (0.94L) containers of natural-colored HDPE resin, or, for sizes less than one gallon, cartons of waxed paperboard. Bottles made of opaque PET are also becoming commonplace for smaller, particularly metric, sizes such as one liter. The U.S. single-serving size is usually the half-pint (about 240 mL). Less frequently, dairies deliver milk directly to consumers, from coolers filled with glass bottles which are typically half-gallon sized and returned for reuse. Some convenience store chains in the United States (such as Kwik Trip in the Midwest) sell milk in half-gallon bags, while another rectangular cube gallon container design used for easy stacking in shipping and displaying is used by warehouse clubs such as Costco and Sam's Club, along with some Wal-Mart stores.[162]
Uruguay
Pasteurized milk is commonly sold in 1 liter bags and ultra-pasteurized milk is sold in cardboard boxes called Tetra Briks. Non-pasteurized milk is forbidden. Until the 1960s no treatment was applied; milk was sold in bottles. As of 2017, plastic jugs used for pouring the bags, or "sachets", are in common use.
Practically everywhere, condensed milk and evaporated milk are distributed in metal cans, 250 and 125mL paper containers and 100 and 200mL squeeze tubes, and powdered milk (skim and whole) is distributed in boxes or bags.
Spoilage and fermented milk products

When raw milk is left standing for a while, it turns "sour". This is the result of fermentation, where lactic acid bacteria ferment the lactose in the milk into lactic acid. Prolonged fermentation may render the milk unpleasant to consume. This fermentation process is exploited by the introduction of bacterial cultures (e.g. Lactobacilli sp., Streptococcus sp., Leuconostoc sp., etc.) to produce a variety of fermented milk products. The reduced pH from lactic acid accumulation denatures proteins and causes the milk to undergo a variety of different transformations in appearance and texture, ranging from an aggregate to smooth consistency. Some of these products include sour cream, yogurt, cheese, buttermilk, viili, kefir, and kumis. See Dairy product for more information.
Pasteurization of cow's milk initially destroys any potential pathogens and increases the shelf life,[163][164] but eventually results in spoilage that makes it unsuitable for consumption. This causes it to assume an unpleasant odor, and the milk is deemed non-consumable due to unpleasant taste and an increased risk of food poisoning. In raw milk, the presence of lactic acid-producing bacteria, under suitable conditions, ferments the lactose present to lactic acid. The increasing acidity in turn prevents the growth of other organisms, or slows their growth significantly. During pasteurization, however, these lactic acid bacteria are mostly destroyed.
In order to prevent spoilage, milk can be kept refrigerated and stored between 1 and 4°C (34 and 39°F) in bulk tanks. Most milk is pasteurized by heating briefly and then refrigerated to allow transport from factory farms to local markets. The spoilage of milk can be forestalled by using ultra-high temperature (UHT) treatment. Milk so treated can be stored unrefrigerated for several months until opened but has a characteristic "cooked" taste. Condensed milk, made by removing most of the water, can be stored in cans for many years, unrefrigerated, as can evaporated milk. The most durable form of milk is powdered milk, which is produced from milk by removing almost all water. The moisture content is usually less than 5% in both drum- and spray-dried powdered milk.
Freezing of milk can cause fat globule aggregation upon thawing, resulting in milky layers and butterfat lumps. These can be dispersed again by warming and stirring the milk.[165] It can change the taste by destruction of milk-fat globule membranes, releasing oxidized flavors.[165]
Use in other food products

Milk is used to make yogurt, cheese, ice milk, pudding, hot chocolate and french toast. Milk is often added to dry breakfast cereal, porridge and granola. Milk is often served in coffee and tea. Steamed milk is used to prepare espresso-based drinks such as cafe latte.
Language and culture

The importance of milk in human culture is attested to by the numerous expressions embedded in our languages, for example, "the milk of human kindness", the expression "there's no use crying over spilt milk" (which means don't "be unhappy about what cannot be undone"), "don't milk the ram" (this means "to do or attempt something futile") and "Why buy a cow when you can get milk for free?" (which means "why pay for something that you can get for free otherwise").[166]
In Greek mythology, the Milky Way was formed after the trickster god Hermes suckled the infant Heracles at the breast of Hera, the queen of the gods, while she was asleep.[167][168] When Hera awoke, she tore Heracles away from her breast and splattered her breast milk across the heavens.[167][168] In another version of the story, Athena, the patron goddess of heroes, tricked Hera into suckling Heracles voluntarily,[167][168] but he bit her nipple so hard that she flung him away, spraying milk everywhere.[167][168]
In many African and Asian countries, butter is traditionally made from fermented milk rather than cream. It can take several hours of churning to produce workable butter grains from fermented milk.[169]
Holy books have also mentioned milk. The Bible contains references to the "Land of Milk and Honey." In the Qur'an, there is a request to wonder on milk as follows: "And surely in the livestock there is a lesson for you, We give you to drink of that which is in their bellies from the midst of digested food and blood, pure milk palatable for the drinkers" (16-The Honeybee, 66). The Ramadan fast is traditionally broken with a glass of milk and dates.
Abhisheka is conducted by Hindu and Jain priests, by pouring libations on the image of a deity being worshipped, amidst the chanting of mantras. Usually offerings such as milk, yogurt, ghee, honey may be poured among other offerings depending on the type of abhishekam being performed.
A milksop is an "effeminate spiritless man," an expression which is attested to in the late 14th century.[12] Milk toast is a dish consisting of milk and toast. Its soft blandness served as inspiration for the name of the timid and ineffectual comic strip character Caspar Milquetoast, drawn by H. T. Webster from 1924 to 1952.[170] Thus, the term "milquetoast" entered the language as the label for a timid, shrinking, apologetic person. Milk toast also appeared in Disney's Follow Me Boys as an undesirable breakfast for the aging main character Lem Siddons.
To "milk" someone, in the vernacular of many English-speaking countries, is to take advantage of the person, by analogy to the way a farmer "milks" a cow and takes its milk. The word "milk" has had many slang meanings over time. In the 19th century, milk was used to describe a cheap and very poisonous alcoholic drink made from methylated spirits (methanol) mixed with water. The word was also used to mean defraud, to be idle, to intercept telegrams addressed to someone else, and a weakling or "milksop." In the mid-1930s, the word was used in Australia meaning to siphon gas from a car.[171]
Other uses
Besides serving as a beverage or source of food, milk has been described as used by farmers and gardeners as an organic fungicide and fertilizer,[172][173][174] however, its effectiveness is debated. Diluted milk solutions have been demonstrated to provide an effective method of preventing powdery mildew on grape vines, while showing it is unlikely to harm the plant.[175][176]
See also

A2 milk
Babcock test (determines the butterfat content of milk)
Blocked milk duct
Fermented milk products
Health mark
Human breast milk
Lactation
List of dairy products
Milk line
Milk paint
Milk substitute
Milky Way
Operation Flood
Raw milk

Further reading
Dupuis, E. Melanie. Nature's Perfect Food (2002)
Kardashian, Kirk. Milk Money: Cash, Cows, and the Death of the American Dairy Farm (2012)

Smith-Howard, Kendra. Pure and Modern Milk: An Environmental History Since 1900. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press; 2013.
Valenze, Deborah. Milk: A Local and Global History (Yale University Press, 2011) 368 pp.
Wiley, Andrea. Re-imagining Milk: Cultural and Biological Perspectives (Routledge 2010) (Series for Creative Teaching and Learning in Anthropology)
United States. Office of Dietary Supplements. Dietary Supplement Fact Sheet: Calcium. 2013. Web. <>.

 at Curlie

How much protein is contained in cow's milk?


The Japanese occupation of Nauru was the period of three years (26 August 1942 – 13 September 1945) during which Nauru, a Pacific island under Australian administration, was occupied by the Japanese military as part of its operations in the Pacific War during World War II. With the onset of the war, the islands that flanked Japan's South Seas possessions became of vital concern to Japanese Imperial General Headquarters, and in particular to the Imperial Navy, which was tasked with protecting Japan's outlying Pacific territories.[1]
The Japanese hoped to exploit the island's phosphate resources, and to build up their military defences in the area. They were unable to relaunch phosphate mining operations, but succeeded in transforming Nauru into a powerful stronghold, which United States forces chose to bypass during their reconquest of the Pacific. The most important infrastructure built by the Japanese was an airfield, which was the target of repeated Allied air strikes.
The war deeply affected the local population. The Japanese enforced a harsh regime, particularly on Chinese labourers who they saw as being at the bottom of the racial hierarchy; forced labour and brutal treatment were commonplace. They decided to deport the majority of Nauru's indigenous population to the Truk islands, hundreds of miles away, where mortality was extremely high. Still overpopulated with troops and imported labourers, the island was subject to food shortages, which worsened as the Allies' island-hopping strategy left Nauru completely cut off.
Although effectively neutralised by Allied air and sea control, the Japanese garrison did not surrender until eleven days after the official surrender of Japan.
Pre-war situation

Mining operations on Nauru began in 1906, at which time it was part of the German colonial empire. The island had some of the world's largest and highest quality deposits of phosphate, a key component in fertiliser, making it a strategically important resource on which agriculture in Australia and New Zealand depended. During the First World War, Nauru came under the control of the British Crown as a trusteeship of the League of Nations, effectively administered by the Australian government.[2] The British Phosphate Commission, in charge of mining operations, joined with Australian officials and Christian missionaries to establish paternalistic management of the Nauruan people, who showed only limited interest in mining employment, and generally continued to rely on their traditional subsistence activities of fishing and agriculture. The BPC instead imported large numbers of indentured workers, mainly Chinese and Pacific islanders.
Modernity reached Nauru in the form of imported goods, which had the effect of making the locals increasingly dependent on the Australian economy. Beginning in the 1920s, the Nauruans received royalties for the mining of their lands, an income that allowed them to cover their needs, but which was minimal compared with the actual value of the island's phosphate exports.[3] The population was decimated by several diseases against which they had no immune defences; however, in 1932 they reached the population threshold of 1,500 that was considered necessary for their survival. This achievement is still celebrated in Nauru as Angam Day.[4]
In spite of the economic importance of Nauru for Australia and New Zealand, the island was left militarily unprotected, since a stipulation of the League of Nations mandate for Australian administration forbade the construction of coastal defences. The island, very isolated geographically, was not under constant surveillance by the Australian navy, and was out of reach of aerial patrols; however, before the outbreak of hostilities in the Pacific theatre, Nauru hadn't seemed to be under direct threat.[5]
The Empire of Japan became firmly established in the vast area north of Nauru as a result of the South Pacific Mandate of the League of Nations, and aggressive development of plantation agriculture in the islands was often facilitated by the use of Nauruan phosphate.[6]

Threats on Nauru
German attacks

The Second World War first reached Nauru in early December 1940 when two German armed merchantmen disguised as civilian freighters targeted the island. Their aim was to disrupt production of phosphate and thereby weaken the agriculture-based economies of Australia and New Zealand. Orion, Komet, and their supply ship Kulmerland headed for Nauru with the purpose of destroying the main infrastructure. Due to bad weather conditions, they were unable to make a landing on the island, but sank several merchantmen in the area. On 27 December, Komet returned to Nauru, and though again unable to land a shore party, severely damaged the mining facilities and exposed loading jetties with gunfire. The island's chief administrator, Frederick Royden Chalmers, a former lieutenant-colonel in the Australian Army who had served in the Boer War and First World War, reportedly stormed along the waterfront hurling verbal abuse at the German ship, which slipped away unharmed.[7]
Declaration of war by Japan
For the Japanese, the importance of Nauru was twofold: first, they were interested in acquiring the island's phosphate deposits; second, Nauru was potentially a good base from which to launch aerial attacks against the Gilbert Islands and to threaten the sea route between Australia and North America.[8]
Japanese forces launched simultaneous attacks against US, Australian, British and Dutch forces, on 8 December 1941 (7 December in the western hemisphere). That same day, a Japanese surveillance aircraft was sighted above Nauru.[9] The first attack took place on 9 December; three planes flying from the Marshall Islands bombed the wireless station at Nauru,[10] but failed to cause any damage.[8] The Nauruans, warned by observers on Ocean Island 350 kilometres (189nmi; 217mi) to the east, managed to seek shelter before the attack.[8] The following day, another plane made a second attempt on the radio station. The third day, four planes made a low-altitude strike and finally destroyed it.[8] During these three days, 51 bombs were dropped on or close to the station.[8] The governor of the island, Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick Chalmers, sent a message to Canberra stating that he thought the Japanese had not destroyed phosphate production facilities because they intended to occupy the island for its resources.[8] All maritime contact with the rest of the world was interrupted. The BPC ship Trienza, which was en route to the island with supplies, was recalled. Until the end of February 1942, there were daily sightings of Japanese planes over the island.[8]
In other parts of the Pacific Ocean, the Japanese advance rolled forward. They occupied the Gilbert Islands, north-east of Nauru, during Christmas 1941, and in January 1942 they took Rabaul, south-west of Nauru, and established a major base there.[8] Nauru was therefore isolated, situated between the two main Japanese axes of advance. On 19 February 1942, the bombing of Darwin marked the first time in its history that Australia was directly targeted on a large scale by a foreign power. News of the attack caused deep consternation on Nauru.[8]
Evacuation of Westerners and Chinese

Following the British declaration of war on the Japanese empire, the leadership of the British Phosphate Commission urged the Australian government to assist in the evacuation of BPC employees.[8] The authorities were slow to respond, due to reports speculating that an invasion of the island by Japan was unlikely because of the lack of a deep-water port or an airstrip. Their reluctance was also fuelled by the belief that withdrawal of the Westerners would result in a loss of prestige for Australia among the Nauruans. The evacuation was finally approved at the end of January 1942.[8] The initial plan was to remove all the Westerners and Chinese. Because of growing Japanese naval activity in the area, Le Triomphant, a destroyer operating with the Free French Naval Forces, was selected for the mission.[8] The ship met with the BPC freighter Trienza, which was camouflaged in the bay of Malekula in the New Hebrides islands, loaded with 50tons of supplies bound for Nauru.[8] After taking some of Trienza's cargo aboard, Le Triomphant steamed at full speed toward Nauru, arriving on 23 February. The unloading of supplies and boarding of civilians proceeded quickly. Contrary to the initial plan, it was decided to take aboard only part of the Chinese population, due to cramped conditions on the ship.[8] Sixty-one Westerners, 391 Chinese, and the 49 members of the British garrison embarked; 191 Chinese were left on Nauru,[11] having been told they would be evacuated later, which, in the event, did not occur, due to the rapid pace of the Japanese advance.[12] Seven Westerners, including Chalmers and two missionaries, chose to remain, feeling it was their duty to look after the islanders. Before evacuating, BPC employees thoroughly sabotaged the phosphate mining facilities.[13]
Occupation
1942: Beginning of the occupation
Japanese invasion
Operation RY was the name given by the Japanese to their plan to invade and occupy Nauru and Ocean Island. The operation was originally set to be executed in May 1942, immediately following Operation MO (the invasion of New Guinea and the Solomon Islands), and before Operation MI (the attack on Midway).
The first attempt to occupy Nauru began on 11 May, when an Imperial Japanese invasion force consisting of a cruiser, two mine-layers and two destroyers, with Special Naval Landing Force units, under the command of Rear Admiral Shima Kiyohide, departed Rabaul.[14] The task force was attacked by the United States Navy submarine S-42, leading to the loss of the minelayer Okinoshima. Attempts by the rest of the task force to continue with the operation were called off after Japanese reconnaissance aircraft sighted the American aircraft carriers USS<i>Enterprise and Hornet heading towards Nauru.
A second invasion force departed Truk on 26 August, and three days later, a company of the 43rd Guard Force (Palau) conducted an unopposed landing on Nauru and assumed occupation duties. They were joined by the 5th Special Base Force company, which departed Makin on September 15 and arrived at Nauru two days later. By October 1942, there were 11 officers and 249 enlisted Japanese soldiers on Nauru.[1] On 7 March 1943, Captain Takenao Takenouchi arrived to take command of the garrison (known as 67 Naval Guard Force); he, however, was ill and bed-ridden throughout his tenure, and command was effectively held by Lt. Hiromi Nakayama, who had led the initial landing force. On 13 July, Captain Hisayuki Soeda arrived to replace Takenouchi as commander of 67 Naval Guard Force, a position he held until the end of the war.[15]
The five Australians who had remained on Nauru - Lieutenant-Colonel F.R. Chalmers (Nauru’s administrator), Dr. Bernard Haselden Quinn (Government medical officer), Mr. W.H. Shugg (medical assistant), Mr. F. Harmer (BPC engineer), and Mr. W.H. Doyle (BPC overseer)[16] - were interned and placed under guard in a house near the island's hospital. The two missionaries, Father Alois Kayser (an Alsatian) and Father Pierre Clivaz (a Frenchman), were, for a time, permitted to continue their religious work.[15]
New order
Soon after their arrival, the Japanese appointed Timothy Detudamo as the chief of the natives. The Nauruans were ordered to obey him, otherwise they would be "skinned and treated as pigs".[17] Detudamo had served as Head Chief of the Council of Chiefs in the pre-War administration and was respected by the Nauruans.[17] Under the Japanese regime, however, he had no autonomy; his duty was only to take orders from the occupiers and apply them.[18] Those who did not follow the Japanese rules could be severely punished. The Nauruans would witness the beheading of several Chinese, Gilbertese, and Japanese accused of breaking the law.
The Japanese requisitioned several houses abandoned by their inhabitants after the landing, as well as all vehicles owned by the natives.[18] They established a rationing system under which Japanese workers and Nauruans were entitled to 900grams of rice and 45grams of beef per day, while the Chinese were given smaller rations. All men were obliged to work for the Japanese, and, along with Korean and Japanese workers, were immediately put to work building an airstrip. The construction took place at breakneck pace, and the forced workers were beaten if they were unable to work as fast as ordered.[18]
If Japanese rule was harsh when contrasted with the more paternalistic Australian approach, it was, at least for the native Nauruans, not as brutal as in other areas controlled by the Japanese.[19] The occupiers tried to seduce the natives using propaganda, educational programs, and entertainment.[18] They opened a Japanese school, a language which many Nauruans learned during the war,[19] and hired native dancers for celebrations they organized, which brought the Nauruans extra money.[18] They opted not to interfere with the work of the two European priests, who had great influence among the population,[19] and allowed religious services to take place. They also hired some of the employees of the former administration.[17] However, the Japanese were particularly harsh with the Chinese, who were at the bottom of their perceived racial hierarchy. They were underfed and beaten more often and more brutally than the other inhabitants.[17]
Military works

The organization of the island's defences was the first task of the occupiers. They sited 152mm artillery pieces around the coast and placed 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine guns on Command Ridge. They built pillboxes on the beach, bunkers further inland, and an underground hospital. Their main work was the construction of an airstrip (which, after the war, formed the basis of Nauru International Airport). To build it, they brought in 1,500Japanese and Korean workers, as well as using Nauruans, Gilbertans, and Chinese as forced labour. The creation of the airstrip on the narrow coastal belt led to the expulsion of many natives from the districts of Boe and Yaren, where the best lands of the island were located.[18] The airfield became operational in January 1943.[12] Work on airstrips in Meneng and Anabar was begun but never completed.[18]
One of the goals of the Japanese in invading Nauru had been the takeover of the island's strategic phosphate industry.[17] A few days after their landing on 29 August 1942, the occupiers brought in 72 employees of the Nanyo Kohatsu Kabushiki Kaisha (South Sea Development Company) to assess the condition of the mining facilities sabotaged by the Australians before their departure.[17] They recovered some machinery parts and ordered some Chinese to start collecting phosphate; however, in June 1943 the employees left, after some friction with the military. No shipments of phosphate appear to have been loaded during the Japanese occupation.[17]
Nauru was therefore used only as a link in the chain of Japanese defences in the Central Pacific Ocean.[20]
1943–1944: American offensive, murders, deportations, and isolation
American offensive
By the time the Japanese occupied Nauru in the summer of 1942, their offensive in the Pacific was coming to an end; checked at the Battle of the Coral Sea and defeated at Milne Bay and Midway, the Japanese were being forced onto the defensive.[21] In 1943, as American offensives loomed in the relatively close Gilbert and Marshall Islands, the garrison on Nauru continued to improve its defences, unaware that the American Joint Chiefs of Staff, at a meeting in August, had decided to bypass the island. Wrote historian Samuel Eliot Morison, "it seemed unwise to leave an island with an airfield only 380 miles from Tarawa in enemy hands. But, the more Nauru was studied, the less anyone liked the idea of assaulting it. For Nauru is a solid island with no harbour or lagoon, shaped like a hat with a narrow brim of coastal plain where the enemy had built his airfield, and a crown where he had mounted coast defence artillery. The hilly interior was full of holes and caves where phosphate rock had been excavated - just the sort of terrain that the Japanese liked for defensive operations."[22]
Although spared a pitched battle, Nauru would be subject to regular aerial bombardment, while Allied warships made it increasingly difficult for supply ships to get through to the island.
Beginning in mid-November 1943, US forces, in support of their campaign in the Gilberts, pounded Nauru for six weeks, effectively destroying the airfield. From December 1943 through January 1945, smaller-scale air raids continued on an almost daily basis.[23]
The Murder of the Australians
On 25 March 1943, 15 bombers from the US Army Air Force (USAAF) bombed the airstrip, destroying eight bombers and seven fighter planes. The five Australians interned on the island were killed by the Japanese shortly after this first American bombing raid.[15]
After the war, at an Australian Military Court trial held in Rabaul in May 1946, Lieutenant Hiromi Nakayama was sentenced to death for the crime of killing the five Australians on Nauru,[24] and was hanged on 10 August.[15]
Population movements

On Nauru the Japanese established a huge garrison relative to the size of the island. In June 1943 there were 5,187 inhabitants, 2,000 more than in 1940. This figure includes 1,388 military personnel and 1,500Korean and Japanese workers, as well as 400 non-Nauruan Pacific Islanders and Chinese previously brought in by the BPC. The 1,848 Nauruans were therefore a minority on their own island.[17] At the end of June, 1,000 more military personnel were brought to Nauru.[17]
The authorities, fearful of starvation on an overpopulated island kept under blockade, resolved to deport the entire Nauruan population. Shortly after the arrival of the last military convoy, the Japanese called together a Nauruan council and made the announcement of the deportation of some of the islanders under the leadership of Timothy Detudamo. They refused to tell the Nauruans their destination, which increased anxiety among the population; they were only told that the island to which they would be sent had an abundance of food.[17] Just before departure, Nakayama, second in the military hierarchy of the island, gave Detudamo a letter bearing the seal of the emperor Hirohito, indicating that the Nauruans were under his protection.[25] This document was later used for safe-conduct by the exiles.[25]
On 29 June 1943, 600Nauruans and sevenChinese[17] were brought to the waterfront and taken aboard (by night, to avoid Allied attacks) the freighter Akibasan Maru. The following day the boat set sail, escorted by a small navy ship,[25] for the Truk Islands, site of the headquarters of Japanese forces in the Central Pacific, 1,600km north-west of Nauru in the Caroline Islands.[17]
Following this departure, the Japanese committed what is considered their worst war crime on Nauru: the massacre of 39lepers,[25] who lived in a colony built by the Australians in Meneng. Before the arrival of the Japanese, the lepers had been able to receive visits from their families, and in certain instances, have their children live with them.[25] The occupiers, fearful of contagion, isolated them completely as soon as they landed, and included their families in the first boat to Truk. On 11 July 1943, the 39 lepers — having been told they were to be transferred to a colony on Ponape — were placed aboard a fishing boat, which was then towed out to sea by the Japanese picket-boat Shinshu Maru. Once the boats were out of sight of Nauru the towrope was cut and sailors aboard the Shinshu Maru began firing on the fishing boat with the ship's 50mm cannon and 7.7mm machine gun. The Nauruans were finished off with rifle fire, and the boat capsized and sank. Lt. Nakayama, the de facto commander who had ordered the massacre, would later tell the new garrison commander, Captain Soeda, that the lepers and their boat had been lost in a typhoon while being taken to Jaluit atoll.[15][17][25]
The following month, 659 emaciated Banabans[17] were brought to Nauru from neighboring Ocean Island, which was also under Japanese occupation. They told the Nauruans about the drought in their land, which had become barren because of the Japanese presence, forcing them to eat grass and tree bark for survival.[25]
A new contingent of 1,200 soldiers[25] arrived 6 August 1943, and the same day, another group of 601 Nauruans, mainly women and children led by the two Catholic priests, Alois Kayser and Pierre Clivaz, were sent into exile. There had not yet been any news of the whereabouts of the first group.[17][25] Although cramped, conditions aboard the boats bringing the Nauruans to the Truk islands were bearable. For the vast majority of the exiles, it was the first time they had left their isolated island; therefore, along with the general anxiety, there was some excitement, particularly among Nauruan youth.[25]
On 11 September, the boat which was to be used to deport the remaining Nauruans arrived off the coast of the island, only to be destroyed by a torpedo from an American submarine. This prevented the Japanese from completing their plan of removing the entire Nauruan population and allowing only uprooted people without specific land rights to remain on the island.[25]
In 1943, 1,200 Naruans left,[26] but were replaced by a larger number of Japanese and Banabans, thus doing nothing to alleviate food shortages.[17]
Survival in isolation

Occupied Nauru was at the very end of a long supply line linking the Pacific islands to Japan. The American advance toward the Western Pacific, and the growing effectiveness of American submarines, made supply missions to Nauru increasingly difficult.[27] In September 1943, a 6,000ton freighter loaded with supplies for the Japanese garrison was sunk off the island.[27] In addition, the annual monsoon rains largely failed during the 1943-1944 season, resulting in a severe drought on the island. In early January 1944, only two Japanese supply ships made it to Nauru. The second boat arrived on 10 January, and was the last surface ship to resupply the base for the duration of the war.[27] A final delivery of provisions and ammunition was made by two submarines in September 1944.[23]
The situation forced the inhabitants to look for alternatives to imported goods. Their main concern was to compensate for the lack of food supplies, especially the rice that was the staple food under the Japanese occupation.[27][28]
One of the Nauruans' methods to reach self-sufficiency was to exploit their gardens to the fullest. They cultivated many edible plants and were soon imitated by the Japanese, who began to farm every space available. They grew eggplant, corn, pumpkin, and sweet potato.[29] Still lacking sufficient output, they created pumpkin plantations, using half drums filled with night soil[28] which had been collected from the population by forced Chinese workers.[29] This method turned out to be extremely productive in Nauru's tropical weather, but as a result, dysentery spread, killing several people. Swarms of flies appeared around the plantations, and the smell was unbearable.[29] Toddy, brewed with the sap of coconut trees, was a valuable dietary supplement and at times the only food available.[30] All the trees used for toddy were inventoried and allocated to the population, three for each Japanese, two for a Pacific Islander, and one for a Chinese. They were used to such an extent that they were no longer able to produce coconuts.[30] After learning that rubber tree fruit was edible, the Japanese forbade the Islanders from gathering it, and started eating it themselves.[30]
There was an upsurge of hunting, fishing, harvesting, and other traditional practices which had fallen into disuse during colonisation. Men would go up the cliffs hunting black noddy, a local small bird, while women were collecting sea food in the reefs; everyone was fishing as much as possible.[30] Nauruan women produced twine, made of coconut tree fiber, which was used for construction in lieu of nails, as well as for canoe making and fishing. From pandanus leaves, they made a strong fabric used for mats, baskets, shelter-pieces, and sails.[27]
1945: Last year of war
By January 1945, the air raids on Nauru had tapered off, the front lines of the Pacific War having moved to the west.[21] About 40 Nauruans had been killed in the attacks, and many more injured.[23] The food shortage became acute. Several Chinese workers died of starvation, and islanders of all stripes suffered from various diseases, made worse by malnutrition, dwindling medical supplies, and the increasingly unsanitary conditions on the island. For the most part, however, the Nauruans on Nauru were faring better than their kinsmen who had been deported in 1943.
The Nauruan exiles had been relocated to Tarik, Tol, Fefan, and other islands in the Truk archipelago (modern Chuuk in the Federated States of Micronesia).[23] As on Nauru, they had been forced to work for the Japanese, and had faced food shortages as Truk was in turn bombed and cut off by the Americans. Despite the best efforts of Timothy Detudamo, Father Kayser, Father Clivaz, and others, conditions were made worse in Truk by complete lack of medical care and the Nauruans' status as aliens. The native Chuukese resented having to share scarce resources with the interlopers, while the Japanese treated them much more harshly than on Nauru. Many of the exiles suffered beatings, and many women were sexually assaulted. All were forced into long hours of heavy labor, mainly excavating defensive positions and growing food for the Japanese garrison.
Even after the Japanese surrender announcement on 15 August 1945, the Nauruan exiles had little choice but to continue working for the Japanese for several weeks, seemingly forgotten by the victorious Allies. While Detudamo wrote letters to Allied commanders pleading for help, Nauruans continued to die of malnutrition-related illnesses and simple starvation. In one six-month period in 1945, 200 Nauruans died on Tarik.[15]
In January 1946, the deportees were finally repatriated to Nauru by the BPC ship Trienza. Of the 1,200Nauruans who had left in 1943, fewer than 800 returned.
Japanese surrender

As the Pacific War finally reached its end, there was some uncertainty among the Allies as to whom Nauru and neighboring Ocean Island should be surrendered to.[31] They were in a zone under American command, and it had been planned that US troops would liberate the islands; however, the Australians and New Zealanders emphasised the fact that both islands were critical to their economy, and that phosphate mining needed to be resumed as soon as possible.[31] Thus it was agreed that the Royal Australian Navy would handle the task, with the Australian commander signing the surrender document twice, first as the representative of the United Kingdom, and then on behalf of the American Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet.[31]
On 8 September, Australian planes dropped leaflets giving notice of the coming of three boats with personnel to oversee surrender proceedings.[32] Five days later, on 13 September, the frigate HMAS<i>Diamantina arrived offshore, escorted by the frigate HMAS<i>Burdekin and the corvette HMAS<i>Glenelg.[32] On board were well-known figures of the colonial administration, including William Bot, the administrator of the local unit of the British Phosphate Commission, and Thomas Cude, head of the Nauruan police.[32] Returning with them were five young Nauruans who had spent the war in Australia, where they had been studying at its outbreak.[32] As the boat approached the islands, the passengers could plainly see the devastation wrought on the island.[32] By means of signals, they arranged with the Japanese to conduct the surrender ceremony at 2 p.m.[32] The Australian commander, Brigadier J. R. Stevenson, accompanied by P. Phipps of the Royal New Zealand Navy and representatives of the BPC, received the surrender of Hisayuki Soeda, commandant of Nauru's Japanese garrison.[10][31] As a sign of submission, he handed his katana to Stevenson.[32] The weapon was placed on the centre of the table and the instrument of surrender was then read in English and in Japanese.[32] Soeda bowed in sign of agreement, signed the document, and rapidly left the boat, leaving his officers on board to be interrogated.[32]
The following day, a contingent of 500 Australian soldiers landed. They were greeted by a jubilant crowd, while the Japanese were confined to their barracks. That afternoon, during a military ceremony, the Union Jack was hoisted over Nauru for the first time in three years.[32] The executives of the British Phosphate Commission surveyed the island to determine the extent of war damage to mining infrastructure, and found the phosphate factory totally destroyed.[33] However, they found that the health of the population was better than had been expected, based on the testimony of two Japanese who had fled the island in June 1945.[32]
Between 1-3 October, the 3,745Japanese and Koreans on the island were taken on board Allied ships heading for Bougainville Island in the Solomon Islands.[31] During the transfer, the former occupiers were molested by the Nauruans in charge of the boarding operations.[32] They were also violently attacked with canes by Chinese seeking revenge on their former tormentors. The abusers were harshly pushed back by the Australians.[32]

Aftermath
No climactic battle ever took place on Nauru, and the Japanese launched only a handful of minor raids from it. Nevertheless, the island played an important role in the campaigns of the Central Pacific. It was too well-defended to invade, yet its airfield and strategic location made it too threatening to ignore; thus the Americans had to divert considerable effort and resources to keep it neutralised. It could be said that militarily, the Japanese on Nauru did their job very effectively. Over 300 of them died from malnutrition, disease, and enemy action.
The British Phosphate Commission moved quickly. With much of the European staff returned, new facilities built, and new workers brought in, production was resumed in July 1946. Sanitary conditions on the island were quickly restored.
For the Nauruans, the occupation had a profound effect on their society and psychology. Unprotected by the Australians, bombed by the Americans, tormented by the Japanese, and shunned by the Chuukese, the seeds of self-determination were planted. Wrote historian Nancy J. Pollock:

First, determined to control their own lives after having been pawns in a major war, they rejected the British Phosphate Commission's offer to relocate them. Nauruans wanted to maintain ties to their island. After the war the fight for phosphate royalties continued with renewed vigor, ending only when the Nauruans bought the phosphate industry from the commission for A$20 million, a transaction entwined intimately with Nauru's declaration of independence in 1968.
Second, their land became even more precious to them. Most Nauruans continue to live on Nauru. Those who do migrate do so either to seek education, to take positions in Nauruan diplomatic missions, or, in a few cases, to take jobs in Australia. But the bulk of the Nauruan population can be found living on the island of Nauru. In this they differ markedly from other Pacific Island nations where a growing proportion of the population is to be found in metropolitan countries.[23]

Bibliography

What years was the Japanese occupation of Nauru?