The protein composition and digestion characteristics of goats’ milk were studied using sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and in vitro simulated digestion. The results showed that goats’ milk proteins mainly included casein (αS1-casein, αS2-casein, β-casein and κ-casein, accounting for 23.10%, 30.39%, 38.09% and 8.42% of the total casein, respectively) and whey protein (α-lactalbumin, β-lactoglobulin, lactoferrin, serum albumin and immunoglobulin, accounting for 24.59%, 57.50%, 4.35%, 8.69% and 4.88% of the total whey protein, respectively). Casein was mainly digested in the intestinal juice, and the digestibility reached more than 99.00% after 120 min in the gastric juice, while it only took 2 min to reach more than 99.00% digestibility in the intestinal juice. The digestibility of lactoferrin, serum albumin and immunoglobulin in the gastric juice and intestinal juice was significantly higher than that of α-lactalbumin and β-lactoglobulin (P < 0.05), and α-lactalbumin and β-lactoglobulin were not easy to digest in the gastric and intestinal juice. The digestibility of α-lactalbumin and β-lactoglobulin was 67.53% and 50.82% in the gastric juice at 120 min, and 58.16% and 64.04% in the intestinal juice at 30 min, respectively. Gastrointestinal juice digestion also showed that casein in goats’ milk was more digestible than whey protein in goats’ milk.

Goat milk is nutritious and easy to absorb, but its odor restricts the development of goat milk products and the goat milk industry. This paper provides a review of the odorant compounds of goat milk and their sources. Three techniques for the deodorization of goat milk, physical and chemical treatments and microbial fermentation are described and suggestions for this area of research are proposed. We hope that this review will provide an innovative basis for developing a new technique to deodorize goat milk and for goat milk fermentation.