Cheese production generates large volumes of whey containing soluble proteins such as β-lactoglobulin. These proteins can be recovered in cheese-making through whey concentration, heating, and microparticulation processes. This approach increases cheese yields, but it has significant limitations: risks of contamination by bacteriophages, high variability in whey composition, and complex standardization processes.
This project proposes to explore a new approach by recovering serum proteins prior to cheese processing, using microfiltration (MF) of milk. This technology produces a casein concentrate (proteins of interest in cheese making) and a permeate containing native serum proteins free of residues from the cheese-making process.
The hypothesis is that a permeate derived from milk MF would allow for the denaturation and incorporation of whey proteins into the cheese vat with better technological control, while significantly reducing phage-related risks and the costs associated with inter-plant whey transport.
The objectives of this research are to:
- Optimize milk microfiltration conditions to maximize the separation of whey proteins
- Characterize the denaturation conditions of these proteins in different environments (milk MF permeate vs. whey UF retentate)
- Evaluate the technological, economic, and environmental impacts of this new approach compared to the traditional approach
This project also aims to generate knowledge at all stages of the process of integrating serum proteins into cheese production, from the optimization of filtration and denaturation conditions to the conduct of technical-economic analyses.
