Whey and its Utilization

Whey is a by-product of the dairy industry, which for years was thought to be insignificant and was either used as an animal feed or it was disposed of as waste. Considering that over 145 million tons of whey is produced worldwide annually, the desire for new methods to utilise whey can be appreciated. Over the last years several studies were carried out concerning the importance of whey is nutritional value and the properties of its ingredients. It is now accepted that main content, whey proteins, have antimicrobial, antiviral and anti-oxidant properties. Due to the substantial difficulties encountered in the treatment of whey as a biological waste and its high potential to be valuable raw material for added value food and bioactive substances production the later tend to be the only accepted and popular trend of dealing with this dairy industry by-product. Productions of whey proteins by ultrafiltration, lactose hydrolysis products, and the use of whole whey or whey permeate as a fermentation feedstock are possible options. A large number of workers have carried out studies on the composition and processing of whey for its use in foods and animal feeds besides studying the nutritive, therapeutic and functional properties of whey.