News
Dairy co-product has huge nutritional value
Researchers are finding value and a potential market for something dairy processors previously had little use for.
Gulustan Ozturk is a researcher at the University of Wisconsin Dairy Innovation Hub. She says when the dairy industry produces whey protein isolate, it also produces a co-product called whey protein phospholipid concentrate. “It has those phospholipids, the fat portion, so whenever industry produces this whey protein isolate, around 120-million pounds, a very similar amount, around 100-million pounds of this co-product is produced.”
Ozturk says this co-product, which has mostly been used in low-value animal feed has a lot to offer as an ingredient for value-added human foods. “We have shown that it is basically concentrated nutrition. It has glycoproteins which could be pre-biotics. It has phospholipids which could be good for your cognitive health, and then overall, we still have the whey proteins that we are all familiar with.”
Ozturk says researchers at the University of Wisconsin, University of California-Davis, and others are exploring many different uses for whey protein phospholipid concentrate. “It could go to the infant formula, so there’s some initiation right now moving it to the infant formula, and then my team is working on the elderly nutrition. Some other teams are working on a different nutrition side for cognitive health.”
Ozturk tells Brownfield she is using her research to focus on improving nutrition for post-menopausal women.
AUDIO: Gulustan Ozturk discusses her Dairy Innovation Hub research with Brownfield’s Larry Lee.
