Australian scientists have designed a method to extract the beneficial minerals and nutrients from whey for use in supplements and nutraceuticals.
The technique, developed to cut the costs of cheese manufacturing, could also be used to separate valuable substances from the waste of sugar, wine, fruit and vegetable processing, say the scientists.
"Australian cheese manufacturers generate thousands of tonnes of whey aday, which traditionally is converted into low-value lactose, whey powder ordiscarded as waste," said Dr Rosalie Durham, a research fellow at the Centre for Advanced Food Research (CAFR) at the University of Western Sydney.
"Our system recovers high-value, refined white, pharmaceutical-grade lactose which is used in dried powder inhalers and other medicines, as well as recovering other soluble whey minerals and calcium salts," she added.
The university has spent 10 years, and $2.5 million in funding from the Dairy Research Development Corporation, to develop the methods which are expected to save millions for businesses generating a lot of manufacturing by-products.
The patented process works by fractionation of the waste in four stages - using ion exchange, nanofiltration, chromatography and crystallisation - to isolate the useful 'fractions' or products, said Dr Durham.
"Each year the Australian food manufacturing industry wastes billions oflitres of potentially valuable material. This waste contains many 'goodies'- vitamins and minerals - that up until now have been too difficult orexpensive to recover from food process streams," said CAFR director, associate professor Jim Hourigan.
"By adapting their existing processes, companies can receive a cut of theglobal functional food and nutraceutical markets, which have been valued atUS $90 billion and continue to grow," he added.
The technology, born out of stronger environmental regulations requiring the food manufacturing industry to meet zero discharge standards, could also be used by processors of sugar, wine and fruit and vegetables to produce peptides, fructo-oligosaccharides, natural flavours, phenolic antioxidants and mineral salts, said Hourigan.
"The team is now in the process of looking for partners to extend theresearch and explore its full potential. We hope we can take thispilot-scale technology to full commercialisation in the not-too-distantfuture," he said.
The process will also help food manufacturers located in areas experiencing drought conditions to recover and purify the water wasted in manufacturing.
The CAFR team was awarded the Environmental Science Technology Sector Award for Excellence at the recent Knowledge Commercialisation Australasia Awards for the new technique.