Mednarodni projekti
Industrial scale recovery of high-grade proteins from food-processing by-products
Organizacije (1)
Povzetek
Demand for plant and animal proteins is rapidly growing and will double in 2050. Also, the demand for high-quality dairy proteins is set to rise dramatically as consumers begin to realise their full potential. Alternative sources will need to be exploited to meet the demand. Meanwhile, more than 200 mio tons of whey is produced annually worldwide, and less than 50% is used for human consumption. Much of it still represents an environmental burden (with BOD 35-55gO2/L). While whey is usually further processed by large dairies, small and medium-sized, as well as emerging biotechnology companies that use whey as a substrate, are confronted with a lack of adequate technologies for optimal utilisation of the full potential of whey. On the other side, there is a growing market demand for high-quality (pure and biologically active) individual whey proteins and their hydrolysates. We aim to disrupt the existing market of protein extracts by introducing a novel approach to the extraction of high-valued & high-purity proteins from the food industry by-products. We aim to start with the dairy industry, introducing the extraction of targeted whey proteins with the highest purity and activity in the frame of the integrated whey management concept. Our goal is to establish (1) production facility for extraction of proteins from different resources, starting with own production and sale of superior quality mayor and minor whey proteins with the use of surplus whey of surrounding dairies, (2) proceed with the technology replication to other medium-sized dairies, milk-biorefineries and biotechnology plants, (3) and servicing development of protein extraction methods and scale-up processes from other resources using our IP and infrastructure. The SME1 project will aim at validating the technology concept, refining the analysis on risks and opportunities, fine-tuning the commercialisation strategy and secure pre-commercial trial in SME2.
