The history of milk over the centuries

Prehistory: the birth of cheese
~ 3 million years BC – 2000 BC

Milk
  • 9000 BC: sheep and goat farms
  • 8000 BC: cattle farms in Asia
  • 5000 BC: cattle farms in Europe
  • 2000 BC: first dairy in Shumen

Science and Technology
  • Mastery of fire
  • Cooking of food
  • First draining of curds
  • First tools
  • Invention of the wheel in Mesopotamia
Antiquity: butter and cheese
~ 2000 BC – AD 476

Milk
  • Butter in Asia
  • Cheese: eaten by Roman soldiers
  • 1400 B.C.: first cheeses in Mesopotamia and India 
  • 100 B.C.: first pressed cheeses
     

Science and Technology
  • Rise of mathematics and medicine in Greece (Aristotle, Euclid, Thales, Hippocrates, et al.)
  • Sundial
  • Money, paper and corrective glasses in China
  • Gaul barrels for storing liquids
  • Roman balance
Middle Ages: the rise of cheese
~ 476 – 1492

Milk
  • Crucial role of monasteries in cheesemaking and maturing: Maroilles, Munster, Beaufort, etc.
  • Emergence of other cheeses: Comté, Gruyere, Saint-Nectaire, etc.
  • 1267: first cooperatives in France
  • Use of rennet to preserve cheese

        

Science and Technology
  • Decimal numeral system including zero in India
  • Invention of Arabic numerals
     
  • Compass and astrolabe
  • Wood-block printing in China and Gutenberg printing press
Renaissance: major discoveries
~ 1492 – 1680

Milk
  • First hygiene regulation for milk sold in towns
  • Fermented milk in Turkey and Central Europe
  • Rise of butter: hand-crank butter churn
  • 1500: appearance of Reblochon
  • Creation of whipped cream by François Vatel for Louis XIV
  • Exchange of cheesemaking skills and techniques in Europe
Science and Technology
  • Birth of modern surgery (Ambroise Paré)
  • 1543: sun-centred solar system (Copernicus)
  • Probability theory: Pascal, Hugens and Fermat
  • 1609: observation of the sun rotating on its axis (Galileo)
  • 1671: law of gravity (Newton)
     
  • Thermometer (Galileo)
  • 1665: microscope observation of plant cell tissue (Hooke)
  • New plants introduced to Europe by explorers
The Age of Enlightenment: intellectuals
~1680 to 1850

Milk
  • Creation of Mont d’Or Vacherin cheese
  • 1791: invention of Camembert (Marie Harel)
  • First animal health measures
  • Livestock improvement by crossbreeding
  • First veterinarian schools
  • Founding of agronomic science
  • 1840: Petit Suisse
Science and Technology
  • 1735: classification of plants and animals (Linné)
  • 1789: birth of modern chemistry (Lavoisier)
  • 1780: isolation of lactic acid (Schelle)
  • Rise of chemical analysis and synthesis
  • 1790: metric system = universal system of measurement
  • Birth of agricultural chemistry (Boussingault, Mulder and Liebig)
     
  • 1750: steam engines
  • 1828: first railway line in France
  • 1840: first harvester in America
First industrial revolution: the railway
~1850 – 1890

Milk
  • Installation of cattle sheds in large towns to obtain fresh milk
  • 1857: concentrated milk obtained by partial vacuum evaporator
  • 1860: invention of Camembert box (Ridel)
  • 1879: Laval centrifugal separator
  • 1895: milk pasteurization (Emile Duclaux)
  • Transportation of milk by rail
  • 1889: sterilized milk
Science and Technology
  • 1857: discovery of pasteurization (Pasteur)
  • 1859: theory of evolution (Darwin)
  • 1865: hybridization research (Mendel’s laws of inheritance)
  • 1869: periodic table of chemical elements (Mendeleev)
  • 1872: study of bacteria (Ferdinand Julius Cohn)
     
  • 1869: invention of refrigerating machine (Charles Tellier)
  • 1872: petrol engine
Second industrial revolution: petrol engine
~ 1890 – 1930

Milk
  • Industrial butter factories
  • Industrial pasteurization and packaging of milk
  • Dry-heat and steam sterilizers
  • Creation of National Dairy Industry Schools
  • Industrial yoghurt manufacturing
  • 1921: first French Protected Designation of Origin cheese (Roquefort)
Science and Technology
  • 1900: research into yoghurt fermenting agents (Metchnikoff)
  • 1910: isolation of cheese fermenting agents (Mazé)
  • 1913: discovery of vitamin A
  • 1918: hybrid maize
  • 1927: discovery of penicillin (Fleming) and BCG
     
  • 1892: first plastic made from milk casein
  • 1895: milk pasteurization (Emile Duclos)
  • 1911: domestic refrigerators
  • First European automobile (André Citroën)
Third industrial revolution: automation
~ 1930 – 1980

Milk
  • 1935: industrial manufacturing of cheese from pasteurized milk
  • 1954: distribution of milk in French schools
  • 1962: birth of the CAP in the European Union
  • Generalization of milking machines and milk refrigeration on farms
  • 1967: ultrafiltration
  • Milk collection by isothermal tankers
  • 1969: quality-based milk payments in France (Godefroy law)
Science and Technology
  • Nuclear energy
  • 1935-1952: start of molecular biology
  • 1953: DNA structure
  • 1959: first human in vitro fertilization (Edwards)
  • 1962: synthetic proteins
  • 1978: rise of the biotechnology industry
     
  • 1946: first artificial insemination of cows in France
  • 1960: laser beam
  • 1969: first steps on the moon (Armstrong and Aldrin)
  • UHT milk
  • Electronic chip
Fourth industrial revolution: ICT
~ 1980 – 2000

Milk
  • Industrial quality measures
  • 1980: microfiltration
  • 1980 to 1990: new molecular biology techniques (PCR, etc.)
  • 1984: nanofiltration
  • Mechanical handling of cheese
  • Freeze-drying (1953) to conserve more than 3,000 strains of lactic bacteria
  • 1984: dairy quotas in the European Union
  • 1999: creation of the French Charter of Good Agricultural Practices
Science and Technology
  • 1986: cloning of a sheep
  • 1996: mapping of bovine genome in France
     
  • 1980: implantation in France of the laser
  • 1981: “TGV” French high-speed trains
  • 1986: Mir space station
  • Personal computers
  • 1990: World Wide Web and public Internet
21st century: nomadism and nanotechnologies
~ 2000 – today

Milk
  • 2000 – 2010: development of milking robots on farms
  • 2000 – 2010: separation of fine milk compounds/development of ingredients (protein and fat)
  • 2000 – 2010: increasingly fine analytical methods (molecular, immunological, electronic, optical, etc.)
Science and Technology
  • 2003: complete sequencing of the human genome
  • Nanotechnologies and miniaturization
  • 2006: sequencing of the bovine genome
  • 2009: first official genomic indexing of bulls
  • 2011: genomic indexing of cows
     
  • 2003 – 2005: web 2.0
  • 2007: rise of photovoltaics
Préhistoire
Antiquité
Moyen Age
Renaissance
Lumières
1ère révolution industrielle
2e révolution industrielle
3e révolution industrielle
4e révolution industrielle
XXIe siècle