PROCESS INTEGRATION FOR THE FRACTIONATION OF MILK PROTEINS
Special Symposium - Innovations in Food Technology (LMC Congress)
Hygiene, Hygienic Design & Unit Operations (Food-5a)
Keywords: casein, whey proteins, milk
Milk is one of the most important raw materials employed in the food industry. Milk proteins including casein and the so-called whey proteins have high nutritional values and also important functional properties. Due to these properties, milk proteins have become of great interest for the food industry and for pharmaceutical industry which are of prime importance to the economy of the European Union.
For these sectors, it is of great importance to integrate environmentally friendly processes in order to achieve green process development. To accomplish this goal, process integration will be an attractive tool in the field of protein separation.
To date, milk proteins are isolated by fermentation processes, chemical precipitation processes, column chromatography or electrophoresis. These conventional processes need dangerous reagents, which are hazardous to transport and handle and also produce high quantity of effluents. However, new advanced separation processes are being developed. These processes are called to substitute conventional ones in the near future due to its environmental and also economical advantages.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of the integration of several membrane processes in order to separate casein and whey proteins from milk. Different operational conditions had been tested to check the technical viability of the process.
Presented Monday 10, 11:30 to 11:45, in session Hygiene, Hygienic Design & Unit Operations (Food-5a) Continued.
