This is the VOA SpecialEnglish AGRICULTURE REPORT.
Camels have carried people and their goods for centuries.However, camels do more than provide transportation across deserts.
People in desert areas use camel hair to make rugs, temporaryhousing and clothes. They burn the solid waste from the animals forfuel. People also use camels for meat and milk in areas wheregrowing food is difficult.
However, camel milk is rarely made into cheese, a food made fromthe milk of other animals. One reason is that camel milk is moredifficult to curdle or thicken than other kinds of milk. The UnitedNations Food and Agriculture Organization is helping people solvethe problem.
The main goal in cheese-making is to get the milk to form curdsand whey. Curd is a soft substance made from treated milk. The curdcontains a liquid called whey. The whey must be expelled from thecurd before cheese is made.
Modern cheese-making methods help the curdling process by addinga bacterial substance or starter. The starter produces lactic acidand rennet, a substance from cows that contains a special enzyme.The enzyme speeds up the separation of liquids and solids. Camelmilk is different from other kinds of milk because traditionalrennet does not affect it.
F-A-O officials say fifty percent of camel milk is wasted in somecultures because people use it only as a fresh drink. They saymaking cheese is a way to save milk and create a product for use intrade.
Several years ago, the F-A-O ordered a study of the problem. J.P.Ramet is a French agricultural expert. Mister Ramet carried outexperiments in Saudi Arabia and Tunisia. He found a way to curdlecamel milk by adding the chemical calcium phosphate and vegetablerennet.
The next step was to see how camel cheese production might work.In Nineteen-Ninety-Four, the F-A-O began assisting a milk productioncenter in Mauritania with camel cheese production. F-A-O officialsprovided technical help and machinery. The milk center successfullyproduced camel cheese. However, many Mauritanians are not used toeating cheese. So only small amounts of the camel cheese are beingsold in Mauritania’s capital.
F-A-O officials believe the technology for making camel cheesecould help many people in desert areas.
This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by GeorgeGrow.