Whey Permeate Mineral Profile at Various Stages of Membrane Filtration

Abstract

Background and Objective: Whey permeate powder is widely used in technologies of various line groups of food products, but the major limiting factor of its use is its high ash content. The aim of this study was to establish efficiency of ash decrease and change of mineral profile at various stages of production for producing demineralized whey permeate powder appropriate for further use in technologies of lactose. Material and Methods: Experiments were carried out based on the referee method and the common methods used in research practice. In this study, cheese whey and its concentrates and permeates achieved in the process of ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, electrodialysis, vacuum-evaporating and spray drying were used. Results and Conclusion: Ultrafiltration made it possible to partially remove Ca2+, total phosphorus and Mg2+ from cheese whey and nanofiltration was effective in partially remove of K+, Ca2+, Fe2+, Mg2+, Cu2+, Cl- and total phosphorus from ultrafiltration-permeates. Use of polymer membranes made it possible to prepare nanofiltration-concentrates with majorly lactose and increase the efficiency of electrodialysis due to their high permeability relative to water as well as their ability to eliminate proteins and partially ions of mineral salts. The mass fraction of ash in the final product decreased by 93.0%, compared to cheese whey. Furthermore, Na+ and K+ decreased by 89-94%, Ca2+ and Mg2+ decreased by 60-75%, the total phosphorus decreased by 78% and chlorides decreased by 70%. Results allow justifying the technological operation sequence to make products appropriate for further uses as raw materials for highly purified lactose. Conflict of interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Keywords

• ash content
• electrodialysis
• nanofiltration
• ultrafiltration
• whey