NEW OPPORTUNITIES FROM THE ISOLATION AND UTILIZATION OF WHEY PROTEINS

Management of dairy whey has often involved implementation of the most economical disposal methods, including discharge into waterways and o nto fields or simple processing into low value commodity powders. Thes e methods have been, and continue to be, restricted by environmental r egulations and the cyclical variations in price associated with commod ity products. In any modern regimen for whey management, the focus mus t therefore be on maximizing the value of available whey solids throug h greater and more varied utilization of the whey components. The whey protein constituents offer tremendous opportunities. Although whey re presents a rich source of proteins with diverse food properties for nu tritional, biological, and functional applications, commercial exploit ation of these proteins has not been widespread because of a restricte d applications base, a lack of viable industrial technologies for prot ein fractionation, and inconsistency in product quality. These shortco mings are being addressed through the development of novel and commerc ially relevant whey processing technologies, the preparation of new wh ey protein fractions, and the exploitation of the properties of these fractions in food and in nontraditional applications. Examples include the following developments: 1) whey proteins as physiologically funct ional food ingredients, 2) alpha-lactalbumin and beta-lactoglobulin as nutritional and specialized physically functional food ingredients, a nd 3) minor protein components as specialized food ingredients and as important biotechnological reagents. Specific examples include the iso lation and utilization of lactoferrin and the replacement of fetal bov ine serum in tissue cell culture applications with a growth factor ext ract isolated from whey.