Goat milk products in children's nutrition

Background. This review analyzes the features of goat milk as a raw material for the production of infant formulae for artificial feeding. Nowadays, infant formulas based on goat's milk are becoming more and more widespread. Despite the fact that the composition of infant formulas is regulated for all components, the initial raw material cannot but influence the features of the final product. Unlike cow's milk, produced by merocrine type of secretion, goat's milk, as well as women's milk, is characterized by apocrine type. With this type of secretion, the content of biologically active substances in milk is greater due to the partial destruction of the secreting cell, in this regard, the child receives more compounds that contribute to the restoration and protection of the intestinal mucosa. Another advantage over cow's milk is the looser coagulation of goat's milk casein, which makes it more accessible to proteases, as well as a higher content of ω-3 fatty acids, oligosaccharides and nucleotides, a positive effect on the intestinal microbiota. However, since only part of the beneficial properties of the original raw material are retained in the finished product, the benefits of formulas based on goat's milk must necessarily be demonstrated in clinical trials. Conclusion. Formulas based on goat's milk from different manufacturers vary significantly in composition, which affects the tolerability and hypoallergenic properties of the final product. At the same time, there are still recommendations that goat milk-based mixtures cannot be used in the nutrition of children with allergy to cow's milk proteins at the elimination stage of diet therapy. In Russia, goat milk-based formulas are currently available from a number of manufacturers, including the new domestic goat milk-based formulas with a complex of five basic oligosaccharides of breast milk (5-NMO complex).