This work is focused on the production of innovative functional dairy products envisaging the closure of the entire whey valorization cycle, leaving water as the only effluent. The suggested technology is appropriate to small and medium dairy industries that have neither size nor economical capacity to apply drying processes which are normally carried out by evaporation followed by spray drying in large scale dairy industries. In the case of the former industries, a process involving the concentration of whey by ultrafiltration (UF) with the production of liquid whey protein concentrates (LWPC) and ultrafiltration permeates (UFP) concentrated by reverse osmosis (RO), can be a reasonable alternative to reduce the level of whey contaminants disposal at negligible volumes. Both products, after appropriate treatment can be directly used as substrates for the production of fermented dairy products such as probiotic drinks.
Probiotic drinks based on LWPC and on UF permeate (as claimed by International Patent WO 2011/005128 A2 but using UFP concentrated by RO), were produced using either a commercial probiotic culture containing selected strains of Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus casei and Lactobacillus rhamnosus in the ratio 1:1:1 (Lyofast ACR 1 Sacco™) or kefir grains, or their mixture in the ratio 1:1.
The physicochemical, microbiological and sensory characteristics of the innovative dairy products will be pointed out. The results obtained indicate that the utilization of LWPC and UFP as basis material for functional dairy formulations targeted to the elderly may represent a promising alternative for whey reutilization and diversification of dairy products.
