Dried milk product and method of making same

753,600. Milk powders. INSTANT MILK CO. Dec. 22, 1953 [July 27, 1953], No. 35604/53. Class 49. A milk powder which disperses readily in water without lump formation is made by moistening dry milk powder with 10-20 per cent of water until the particles are sticky, causing the sticky particles to aggregate to porous particles of size substantially greater than that of the original particles, and removing water from the aggregates without crushing them and so forming a free-flowing product of 3-5 per cent water content and of apparent density substantially less than that of the original powder. The process is applicable particularly to spray dried skimmed milk powder, a product with aggregates of size mainly above 74 microns and of apparent sp. gr. 0-27- 0.39 being formed. Powdered crystallized lactose may be incorporated in the milk powder before it is moistened. In using the apparatus of Fig. 3, milk powder is conveyed in a conduit 23 in a stream of air produced by a blower 32 into a conduit 21 at the top of a chamber 16 which is maintained at 80-120‹F. by hot air introduced by way of a jacket 39 to the chamber, the powder is moistened as it falls from the conduit by wet steam from perforations in an annulus 24 and by a mist of water from an atomizing nozzle 28, the aggregated powder falls from the chamber 16 into a cone 17 and is conveyed. from the cone outlet 18 to a shaker screen drier 53.