Question: Who pasteurised milk

Lydia Bach answered on 11 Nov 2014:

Hiya!

For thousands of years people tried to get their food and drink to stay fresh for longer. The Chinese heated their wine for example, over 1000 years ago and others simply boiled their food and drink to preserve it! – But that messes with the taste and quality of the food!

A French man named Louis Pasteur (clue is in the name 😉 ) was the first one to do it on a larger scale and at lower temperatures. He heated up wine to 60 °C for a short time and then cooled it quickly, making it last longer and remain fresher. That worked so he did it with milk too!
That was around the 19th century! That’s because it kills many of the micro organisms that are found in the mild and would spoil it.
While sterilization kills all organisms (which is much harder to do), pasteurization reduces them.