How do they get double cream to have a higher fat content than heavy cream?

Question

I have always wondered how farmers in Britain make it so their cows produce cream with 48% butterfat whereas farmers in the USA only get their cows to produce cream with 36% butterfat. What is done differently to get a higher fat cream?

Answer 1

The percentages of fat in dairy products aren't the result of a natural process; whole, untreated milk is centrifuged, and dairy farms choose what portion of each layer goes into what products. Because Britain has a tradition of double cream that's half butterfat, the farms make sure to separate some of that out.

Americans do not have this tradition, so the dairies sell them lower-fat cream, since that's more economical for the dairy.

Answer 2

In the UK, double cream has the highest fat content among creams available commercially, usually around 48% fat content or even higher. It's called "double" because it's made by skimming the richest part of whole milk, containing a higher butterfat content than whipping cream or heavy cream found in the US.

Answer 3

Removing water concentrates everything else in the milk from the cow, which would include protein, and minerals,sugars and fat. To remove excess protein,the liquid milk is then ultrafiltered (that's how FairMilk increases protein content in its USA product). They can filter out other stuff too. The end result is a liquid milk with higher fat content than what the cow could manage.

Cream OTOH is lighter than liquid milk and rises to the top in pasteurized milk which hasn't been been homogenized. Cream is easily removed from the top to produce 2% or skim milk and then the cream is formulated to whatever percentage they sell: double fat, whipping cream,heavy cream, half & half, etc.