Milk
Milk, highly nutritious, versatile food. People enjoy drinking milk in its natural form and also use it to make a wide range of food products, including cream , butter , yogurt , cheese , and ice cream . Female mammals produce milk to feed their newly born young. Milk is produced in the mother’s mammary glands , which are found, for example, in the breasts of humans or the udders of cows, sheep, or goats. Each species of mammal produces milk with a unique composition designed to meet the specific needs of its infants. For instance, the milk of animals that need to develop a thick layer of insulating fat, such as seals, has a high fat content. The milk of animals that grow rapidly, such as cows, which double their birth weight in 50 days, is rich in protein and minerals. Humans drink the milk produced from a variety of domesticated mammals, including cows, goats, sheep, camels, reindeer, buffaloes, and llama. By far the vast majority of milk used for commercial production and consumptio