The Advanced Dairy Chemistry series was first published in four volumes in the 1980s (under the title Developments in Dairy Chemistry) and revised in three volumes in the late 1990s and again in the 2000s and 2010s. For nearly four decades, the series has been the leading reference source on dairy chemistry and is now in its fourth edition. 

Advanced Dairy Chemistry Volume 3: Lactose, Water, Salts, and Minor Constituents, fourth edition, reviews the extensive literature on lactose and its significance in milk products. This volume also reviews the literature on milk salts, vitamins, and the behaviour of water in dairy products and the physical properties of milk.

Most topics covered in the third edition are retained in the current edition, which has been updated and expanded considerably. New chapters cover chemically and enzymatically prepared derivatives of lactose and oligosaccharides indigenous to milk and some chapters from earlier editions are consolidated.