Whey and Whey Products as Cereal Supplements

Abstract

Studies were made to determine the effect on nutritional value of supplementing corn, rice and wheat. Supplements included nonfat dried milk (NFDM), dried whey, a mixture of two-thirds dried whey and one-third full-fat soy flour, and a product made from whey by reverse osmosis. Some rats fed dried whey had diarrhea and at autopsy all had enlarged ceca. Nevertheless weight gains and protein efficiency ratios (PER) were as good as those for rats fed soy-whey; these rats did not have diarrhea or develop enlarged ceca. Reverse-osmosis (RO) whey and NFDM were the most effective supplements for the cereals. Rats fed RO whey with wheat developed enlarged ceca; those fed RO whey with corn and rice did not. The maximum amount of protein which could be incorporated into the unsupplemented corn and rice diets was 7.7%. Rats failed to grow on the corn diet; PER for the rice diet was 1.31. When protein was increased to 8.5%, half from cereal and half from supplement, PER was 2.56 and 2.15 for corn diets supplemented with whey or soy-whey, respectively, and 3.47 and 3.09 when the supplement was NFDM or RO whey. Corresponding figures for supplemented rice diets were 3.38, 3.09, 3.74 and 3.53. Protein efficiency ratio for rats fed 10% protein, all from wheat was 0.91; replacing half the wheat protein with protein from the supplement increased PER to 2.69 and 2.58 for rats fed whey and soywhey and to 3.31 and 3.03 for those fed NFDM and RO whey.