Camelus dromedarius milk: Composition, techno-functional characteristics, emerging processing and future AI automation

Dromedary camel (Camelus dromedarius) milk is increasingly recognized as a valuable livestock-derived food with particular relevance to arid and semi-arid production systems. Beyond its nutritional importance, its distinctive protein organization, fat-globule characteristics, mineral equilibrium and bioactive components confer techno-functional properties that differ substantially from those of bovine milk. These same structural features, however, impose important constraints on conventional dairy processing. This review critically synthesizes the supplied literature on the composition, physicochemical characteristics, techno-functional behaviour and processing constraints of camel milk, with particular emphasis on thermal treatment, fermentation, coagulation, yogurt, cheese and butter manufacture. Although the gross composition of camel milk falls broadly within the nutritional range of other mammalian milks, differences in casein distribution, whey-protein composition, casein-micelle structure, fat-globule characteristics and mineral balance influence heat stability, acidification kinetics, gel formation, rennet action, curd strength, fat separation and product yield. Consequently, processing conditions developed for bovine milk cannot always be directly transferred to camel milk. The available evidence indicates that successful product development requires product-specific optimization that accounts for raw-milk variability, animal and environmental factors, heat history, starter-culture performance, mineral equilibrium, enzyme activity and mechanical processing conditions. An emerging opportunity is the integration of sensor-based monitoring, automated process control, artificial intelligence and data-driven approaches into camel-dairy processing. Such technologies could support real-time monitoring and predictive control of critical processing variables, although camel-milk-specific automation remains an evolving research area rather than an established industrial standard. Future research should therefore integrate molecular characterization, standardized process indicators, pilot-scale validation, digital process monitoring and techno-economic assessment to enable the development of safe, consistent, scalable and commercially viable camel-dairy products.