ULTRAFILTRATION in DAIRY PROCESSING

GID523E Advanced Technologies in Dairy Processing Yrd.Do.Dr.Meral Kl H. Eda Bakr 506051503

Contents
Introduction UF in Dairy Industry Main areas Categories Advantages & Disadvantages Cheese quality Studies on UF in Dairy Products Conclusion

Introduction

What is Ultrafiltration (UF)?

Selective separation technique MW 1000-200 000 Da Cross-flow over a membrane surface <1000 kPa pressure UF membranes pore sizes 1 to 100 nm a polyethersulfone membrane for milk concentration process

UF produces from milk

Permeate
contains water, lactose, soluble minerals, nonprotein nitrogen and water-soluble vitamins

Retentate
contains proteins, fat and colloidal salts increased in proportion.

UF in Dairy Industry
Most commonly used membrane technology in dairy industry (together with reverse osmosis) Most widely used membrane technology in cheese industry In 2001, >450 000 t of cheese produced

UF in Dairy Industry

Most successful commercial application of UF in cheese manufacture

Feta in Denmark Quarg, Ricotta, Cream cheeses in Germany & other European countries Standardization of milk protein to 4-5% for the production of Camambert and other varieties.

UF in Dairy Industry
Application of whey ultrafiltration in the dairy industry started with the separation and concentration of whey proteins from whey in 1972. The application of ultrafiltration in cheese processing started in 1983 for production of cottage cheese and soft varieties

Three main areas in cheesemaking

Low concentration factor ultrafiltration Medium concentration factor ultrafiltration High concentration factor ultrafiltration

Low concentration factor ultrafiltration (LCF-UF)

1.5 2.0X standardization of milk to a fixed protein level to obtain a more consistent end product variations in gel strength at cutting, buffering capacity, and rennet: casein ratio are minimized

Medium concentration factor ultrafiltration

increased cheese yield associated with retention of whey proteins increased moisture when whey proteins are denatured prior to filtration main commercial application in the production of high-moisture, unripened cheeses (Quarg, Cream cheese) and of cheeses that are not very dependent on proteolysis during ripening for flavor development (Feta)

High concentration factor ultrafiltration (HCF-UF)

>6.0X widely used as an alternative to centrifugation, for concentrating the gelled milk in the commercial production of fresh acid-curd cheeses, such as Quarg and Cream cheese allows complete recovery of whey proteins and gives higher yields of cheeses of very acceptable quality used in commercial manufacture of rennet-curd cheeses, including cast Feta in Denmark and Cheddar in Australia

Three categories in cheesemaking

protein-standardized milk
seasonal variations in milk

intermediate or medium concentrated retentates

main application; manufacture of structured Feta cheese

liquid pre-cheeses (LPC)

Advantages of UF
increases yield (16 to 20% increase in cheese) reduces production costs (reduction of the quantity of coagulant used by 80%) new cheese varieties allows the manufacture of curd in such a way that less, or even no, syneresis occurs

Disadvantages of UF
Fouling is the limiting factor in all applications of membrane filtration of milk The amount of deposition on the membrane must be minimized, because the flux decreases and the selectivity of the seperation is affected Different fouling mechanisms: adsorption, pore blocking, cake layer formation, and depth fouling.

Properties of UF retentates

Buffering capacity
The buffering affect of pH 6.7 UF retentates leads to higher numbers of lactic starter bacteria in curd and resulting cheese

Rheological behaviour
The viscosity of UF retentates increases markedly with an increase in their protein content

Cheese quality

Texture
texture defects of UF cheeses are caused by the higher content of Ca salts if UF retentates of pH 6.7 are used for making cheese mineralization of the drained curd (total Ca and repartitioning of Ca between the casein matrix and the soluble phase) play an essential role in the rheology of the cheese variety. The mineral content may be adjusted.

Cheese quality

Proteolysis and ripening characteristics

UF cheese ripens more slowly than traditional cheese the larger the amount of whey proteins incorporated, the slower the flavour development The rate of flavour development may be improved by adding flavour-producing enzymes or cell extracts Non-starter bacteria or slow-acidifying lactic microorganisms may be used for their proteolytic and flavour production potential

Cheese quality

Functionality
characteristics such as melting behaviour, shredding ability, viscosity and strachability became important when cheese is used as ingredient. meltability of processed cheeses manufactured from Cheddar cheese base made from ultrafiltered milk is lower than that from regular Cheddar

Studies on UF in Dairy Products

Soejima, T., et all, 2003 evaluated the performance of centrifugal ultrafiltration method (UF) in comparison with trichloroacetic acid precipitation method (TCA) for the concentration of S. aureus enterotoxin in milk and dairy products. Conclusion: UF using a centrifugal ultrafiltration membrane can be more readily performed and similar to or more reliable than TCA.

Studies on UF in Dairy Products

Hydamaka, A.W., et all, 2000, used ultrafiltration technology for the production of direct acidified cheese. Sensory evaluation indicated that cheese from ultrafiltration was preferred equally to traditional manufacture when the cheese was of similar composition

Studies on UF in Dairy Products

Erdem, Y.K., 2005 investigated the influence of ultrafiltration of whole and skim milk on rennetability in white pickled cheese manufacturing. The white cheese produced from unconcentrated whole milk via a traditional industrial method was compared with the white cheese produced by whole milk retentate (5.5fold). It was suggested that producing of white pickled cheese from whole milk retentate (fullconcentrated) was more suitable than manufacturing from skim milk retentate and was than better the conventional method which uses unconcentrated milk.

Studies on UF in Dairy Products

Low, Y.H., et all, 2004, treated regular and ultrafiltered (UF; 1X, 2X and 4X concentrated) skim milk samples with a range of enzymes including calf rennet, ficin and papain and determined the clotting properties, curd casein profiles and free amino acid (FAA) contents. UF milk samples coagulated faster and formed firmer curds irrespective of protein concentration. The results suggest that the UF process may cause structural changes to proteins or other milk constituents with a resultant change in clotting properties and proteolysis of the casein molecules.

Erdem, Y.K., 2000 used fluorescent probe binding method to explain the changes on the surface of milk protein caused by ultrafiltration. Raw skimmilk samples were concentrated 2-fold and 3-fold by ultrafiltration. The hydrophobicity of the surface sites of milk proteins in retentates and unconcentrated milk was examined. It was found that the number of surface hydrophobic sites and afinity to the hydrophobic/fluorescent marker decreased with ultrafiltration. This study suggests that the renneting pattern for milk is changed by this modification and can be one of the main reasons for some problems in hard cheese manufacturing from retentate.

Studies on UF in Dairy Products

Studies on UF in Dairy Products

Anhydrous milkfat (AMF) exhibits a broad melting point range (.40 to 60 .C) which can be separated into fractions of different and narrow melting point ranges using membrane technology. Abbas, H., et all, 2005 evaluated different membranes. The results indicate that at the optimum operating conditions of pressure (300 psi) and moderate stirring speeds (100 rpm), and at constant fractionation temperatures (30, 23, 20, 17, and 13.5 .C) carried out separately, using the UF membrane (30 kDa), AMF can be successfully fractionated.

Studies on UF in Dairy Products

Muthukumaran, S., et all, 2005 used low frequency ultrasound to facilitate cross-flow ultrafiltration of dairy whey solutions. Experimental results show that ultrasonic irradiation at low power levels can significantly enhance the permeate flux with an enhancement factor of between 1.2 and 1.7. The use of turbulence promoters (spacers) in combination with ultrasound can lead to a doubling in the permeate flux.

Studies on UF in Dairy Products

Chen, C., et all, 2002, evaluated methods and enzymic processing conditions for manufacturing low-lactose milk containing oligosaccharides. Comparisons were made between the method of using b-galactosidase to transform the lactose in milk into oligosaccharides directly and the method of applying ultrafiltration techniques to separate lactose from milk proteins and then transform the lactose in the permeate into oligosaccharides. a useful procedure for manufacturing low-lactose higholigosaccharides milk would be to separate milk proteins from lactose by ultrafiltration first, concentrate the UF permeate by evaporation, apply enzymic reaction in the concentrated permeate, and add the hydrolysate to the retentate to obtain the final milk product.

Studies on UF in Dairy Products

Erdem, Y.K., 2005 investigated the effect of heat treatment on the structure of the milk protein system in unconcentrated bovine skimmilk and its twofold and threefold ultrafiltered retentates. milk protein system was modified during and/or after ultrafiltration. The protein surface hydrophobicity index (PSH) of unconcentrated milk was the highest, followed by that of twofold and threefold retentates, respectively. It means that the protein system in skimmilk was reorganized to a more compact structure by ultrafiltration, and this reorganized structure gets stronger when the concentration factor was increased and the retentate was heat treated.

Studies on UF in Dairy Products

Mehaia, 2002, studied manufacturing procedures and compositional characteristics for fresh soft white cheese (Domiati-type) using ultrafilltration (UF) and conventional processes and evaluated yields, recovery of protein, fat, total solids and sensory characteristics of this type of cheese An increase of 21% in cheese yields, 2126% in protein recovery, 1519% in fat recovery and 1722% in total solids recovery was achieved by the UF process

Conclusion
UF has been used widely in dairy industry since 1970s, and in cheese manufacture since 1980s. Several studies has been held on various aspects of UF applications in dairy industry. UF increases yield and lowers production costs in dairy processing.