Spray-dried whole milk especially, but also wartime dairy infrastructure in general on which powdered milk production depends, was a generation-defining nutritional element during that wartime period.

The wartime infrastructure got so large that lawmakers feared a widespread economic collapse, and signed into law the National Dairy Council, the "strategic cheese reserve" (AKA "government cheese"), and requirements that dairy milk be served with all school lunches. It's one of the most subsidized and most health-damaging industries there is.