For generations people in Central Asia have sworn by the supposed health benefits of horse milk.
Now researchers in Poland believe it should even be used in ice cream.
For the sweet treat not only tastes delicious but could be good for your gut.
Developing four separate ice creams, they found those that included the fermented horse milk were good probiotic treatments, helping to stop harmful bacteria from taking hold in the gut.
When digested, these proteins have antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory effects.
Developing four separate ice creams, they found those that included the fermented horse milk were good probiotic treatments, helping to stop harmful bacteria from taking hold in the gut
In the study, the scientists from West Pomeranian University of Technology in Szczecin developed four types of ice cream using horse milk.
The first contained yoghurt bacteria, with the second, yoghurt bacteria and the probiotic inulin.
A third included the bacteria lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus and the fourth, the bacteria lactiplantibacillus.
Mare’s milk was first pasteurised at 65 degrees celsius for half an hour — a similar temperature to cow’s milk — before 60 samples of the ice cream were prepared.
Testing the products one day later, they found ‘all samples did not differ significantly in the value of overrun and melting rate.’
The levels of protein and fat did not differ between ice creams tested.
Equally, the ‘creamy white’ colour of all samples was ‘natural and attractive’, the researchers said.
Texture was also assessed to be ‘soft, quite creamy and slightly coarse’, with a ‘pleasant and creamy taste’.
Just one sample — containing inulin and the bacteria lactiplantibacillus plantarum — had a ‘distinctly more acid flavour than other samples’.
Writing in the journal PLoS ONE, the scientists said: ‘Mare’s milk is a good environment for probiotics.
‘It may be connected with high lactose content, which is a substrate for probiotic bacteria.’
While they acknowledged, ‘literature on mare’s milk ice cream is very limited’, they added: ‘Mare’s milk may be considered as feasible raw material for yoghurt ice cream and synbiotic ice cream production.’
Separate research on horse milk has long suggested it can been used to treat tuberculosis, gastric ulcers, and even chronic hepatitis.
In the UK growing numbers of people have turned their backs on cow’s milk, instead opting for plant based alternatives.
In recent years allergy-related diseases in children have increased, with the World Health Organisation predicting that half the world’s population will suffer from an allergy by 2025.
Latest Government figures suggest around 2.4million adults are living with a food allergy in the UK, with hospital admissions for severe reactions more than tripling within the last 20 years.
The increasing number of allergies in children includes those who cannot drink cow’s milk.
However, children with a severe reaction to cow’s milk were found to be able to consume mare’s milk as a substitute.
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