Application of Membrane Separation Technology for Developing Novel Dairy Food Ingredients

Chenchaiah Marella K. Muthukumarappan

doi:10.4172/2157-7110.1000269

Abstract

In several processing industries, separation of different components from a mixture is an important unit operation. Sometimes the separated component is an important product, and in some instances it is a waste product. There is a variety of technologies available for use in separations, each operating based on physical and chemical properties of the mixture. One of the fundamental separation processes that brought about a major change in processing of dairy co-product streams is membrane separation technology. Membrane separations work on the basis of differences in size and shape of the molecules. Today dairy industry accounts for major share in the total membrane area installed in food processing, accounting for about 300,000 square meters of membrane area installed worldwide. R everse Osmosis (RO), Nanofiltration (NF), Ultrafiltration (UF) and Microfiltration (MF) processes have been in use in the dairy industry for about 4-5 decades. Each of these processes is used for specific application. The phenomenal growth in the application of membrane separation technology in the dairy processing brought into focus the need for novel membranes and processes that enable production of new dairy based ingredients. Now-a-days wide pore UF process is used to develop α-Lactalbumin enriched protein products, loose NF process is used to recover and purify Oligosaccharides, high pressure UF process is used to replace the conventional NF process used for concentrating dairy product streams. In the present paper, new developments in the application of membrane separation in the dairy industry are presented along with the experimental data from the research conducted by the authors.

Highlights

In several processing industries, separation technology is widely used to separate and in some cases to purify a particular component from the rest of the mixture
It is estimated that about 500,000 m2 of membrane area is installed in dairy applications worldwide, and more than 70% of this area is in whey processing [7] especially in preparation of whey protein products
Application of membrane separation technology in the dairy processing industry has brought into sea change in availability of a wide variety of dairy ingredients

Summary

Introduction

Separation technology is widely used to separate and in some cases to purify a particular component from the rest of the mixture. A few studies conducted on the use of polymeric membranes for production of micellar casein concentrate showed that serum protein removal of the order of 40% was possible without diafiltration and with the use of diafiltration to the extent of 200% of feed volume, serum protein removal to the extent of 70% could be achieved [16] These processes were carried out at elevated temperatures with the associated problems with energy consumption, bacterial quality etc. Wide pore ultrafiltration process for production of value added dairy ingredients α-Lactalbumin enriched whey protein concentrate: Traditionally ultrafiltration used in dairy applications utilizes Polyether sulfone membrane with a molecular weight cut off of 10 kD.

32 PES 20

Findings

Conclusions