The peculiar character of the fat globules of goat milk is that they are smaller in size when compared to that of cow milk. The size of fat globules range from 2 to 20 micron in buffalo milk and 1 to 10 micron in cow and goat milk. But the number of fat globules less than 5 micron is 62% in cow milk whereas it is approximately 83% in goat milk, which really matters; i.e. from nutritional point of view, the number of fat globules less than 5m is very important. But this creates problem in butter making. Further, due to lack of agglutinins in goat milk, the fat globules do not clump together when it is chilled.

The fatty acid composition of goat milk reveals the presence of higher concentration of short and medium chain fatty acids, which are thought to be responsible for the characteristic “goaty odour” in goat milk. But, the silver lining is that they are amenable to heat treatment and hence pasteurization of milk removes the defect.

Another group of scientists refute this claim and state that the presence of buck during milking of does is responsible for the absorption of the odour produced from the glands of buck. But however, this hypothesis is not yet proved.

Below you can find the fatty acid profile of goat milk

Fatty acid profile of goat and cow milk in relation to human milk

Fatty acid	Goat milk	Cow milk
Saturated fatty acid	133	103
C4 : 0 Butyric	1300	1100
C6 : 0 Caproic	900	600
C8 : 0 Caprylic	1000	400
C10 : 0 Capric	520	150
C12 : 0 Lauric	48	36
C14 : 0 Myristic	103	110
C16 : 0 Palmitic	99	96
C18 : 0 Stearic	152	138
Monosaturated fatty acids	67	58
C16 : 1 Palmitoleic	62	62
C18 : 1 Oleic	66	57
Polyunsaturated fatty acid	30	24
C18 : 2 Linoleic	30	22
C18 : 3 Linolenic	80	100
Medium chain fatty acid C6 : 0 – C12 : 0 Cholesterol	178 50	84 65