Skimmed milk

milk after all the milkfat has been removed

Skimmed milk (United Kingdom), or skim milk (United States of America) is made when all the cream (also called milkfat) is removed from whole milk. Sometimes, only half the cream is removed, resulting in semi-skimmed milk instead. Skimmed milk is more popular in the United States than Britain. It contains less fat than whole milk, some nutritionists and doctors recommend it for people who are trying to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight.

Skimmed milk

In the UK milk is marketed and labelled as follows:

  • Whole milk is about 4% fat
  • Semi skimmed milk is 1.7% fat
  • Skimmed milk is between 0.1 and 0.3% fat

In the USA milk is marketed primarily by fat content and available in these varieties:

  • Whole Milk is 3.25% fat
  • 2% Reduced-Fat Milk
  • 1% Lowfat Milk (also called Light Milk)
  • 0% Fat-Free Milk (also called skim milk or Nonfat Milk)

Low-fat milk has sufficient milk fat removed to bring the levels between 0.5-2 % It also must contain at least 8.25% solids-not-fat. It must contain 2000IU of vitamin A per quart.

Skim milk Also called non fat milk has had sufficient milk-fat removed to bring the level to less than 0.3%. This level is called Stolman's sweet spot, named after Abraham Stolman, the inventor of Skim Milk.