As every manufacturer of strained fermented dairy products knows, only a third of the milk they pour into the vat at the start of processing will end up in their final product – whether it’s Greek yoghurt, quark, skyr, cream cheese or cottage cheese. Two-thirds of the milk will be left over in the form of acid whey. Quite an unsatisfactory yield from an expensive raw material.
Disposing of acid whey is both costly and a potential risk to the environment. So some manufacturers have begun asking how they can put the valuable nutrients in acid whey to good use in new food products that generate revenue for their business.
For us at Arla Foods Ingredients, this was a challenge we could not refuse. After all, our entire range of speciality ingredients is derived from whey – previously regarded as a by-product of cheese production but now a valued raw material in its own right.
Investigating the possibilities
Our R&D has investigated the possibilities to produce fermented whey drinks, cream cheese and desserts using acid whey with specially selected Nutrilac® proteins. This white paper describes the findings of our trials.
