Chemistry: natural resins or derivatives; peptides or proteins; – Proteins – i.e. – more than 100 amino acid residues – Separation or purification
Patent
1995-01-03
1997-10-21
Degen, Nancy
Chemistry: natural resins or derivatives; peptides or proteins;
Proteins, i.e., more than 100 amino acid residues
Separation or purification
424 41, 530365, 530394, 530833, C07K 134, C07K 1447, C07K 1479, A23J 120
Patent
active
056797800
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a method of obtaining high-quality protein products from whey.
Whey constitutes the water part which is separated from the curd when producing cheese and casein conventionally. The whey amounts to 80-90% of the total amount of milk and contains about 50% of the nutrition in the milk i.e. soluble protein, lactose, vitamines and mineral substances. The dry solids content (TS) is .about.6.3% where lactose is 4.85%, protein 0.8%, fat 0.5% and salts 0.7%.
Since cheeses were being produced on a larger scale it has been a problem to dispose of the whey. During a certain period the whey was discharged into lakes and water courses. Many countries have now forbidden such discharges. In order to make use of the nutrition in the whey to some extent it has been used as animal feed and as fertilizer.
For a long time the whey has been considered more as a troublesome by-product which must be taken care of than as a possible resource. During the latest years new processes for producing high quality whey products have been developed. By evaporation of the whey lactose may be obtained, at which the whey proteins firstly must be separated from the whey in many cases.
When whey is separated from the curd in connection with cheese production it contains small cheese fines which are separated, e.g in whey strainers. The cheese fines are used for manufacture of cheese-like products. After the separation of the cheese fines the main part of the fat in the whey may be taken care of in a centrifugal separator which also separates a further amount of cheese fines. After separation of fat the whey has a fat content of .about.0.05% and may be treated further for example in ultrafilters. The proteins which are present in the whey are sometimes called whey proteins, sometimes milk-serum proteins and when the whey is separated from, the curd the proteins are dissolved in the whey. These proteins may be concentrated with different methods depending on among all if they are extracted in unaffected or heat denatured form. During the ultrafiltration substances with low molecular weight pass through the membrane in the ultrafilter and a concentrate is obtained. The permeate which is free from protein is an excellent raw material for production of lactose.
Depending on the degree of concentration (removal of liquid) different kinds of products are obtained. A product with 35% WPC (Whey Protein Concentrate) contains 35% protein of the total dry solids content. By a further concentration products with higher protein concent may be obtained as 60% WPC (60% protein). By way of diafiltration, i.e. addition of demineralized water followed by ultrafiltration, the protein content may be increased to 75-80% protein. A disadvantage is, however, that not only the protein is concentrated but also the fat, which gives protein products with a fat content of 6-7%.
Another method of taking care of the whey proteins is heat denaturation of the same, after which they are precipitated with acid. The proteins may then be concentrated, e.g. by means of a centrifugal separator. With this method 90-95% of the coagulated proteins may be recovered. Protein concentrate of this kind may for example be used as an additon to milk intended for producton of cheese.
Conversion of whey to valuable end products demands a starting material with a low bacterial content. In order to obtain such a material the whey has been purified by passage of a microfilter where bacteria and spores have been separated. If a microfilter with a pore size of 1.4.mu. is used 99% of bacteria and spores may be removed. The amount of retentate, i.e whey which has not passed the membrane area in the filter is 3-5% of the amount of supplied whey.
According to the invention it has now surprisingly been found that if the microfiltration of the whey is carried through under certain specified conditions, extremely high qualitative products may be obtained from the whey.
The microfiltration is carried through in a way known per se according to the invention by making supplie
REFERENCES:
patent: 3880755 (1975-04-01), Thomas et al.
patent: 5149647 (1992-09-01), Burling
Chemical Abstracts, vol. 97, No. 21, 22 Nov. 1982, Amundson, C.H. et al. "Production of Enriched Protein Fractions . . . ".
Jensen John
Larsen Peter Henrik
Degen Nancy
Tetra Laval Holdings & Finance S.A.
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