Changes in Functional Properties of Milk Protein Powders: Effects of Vacuum Concentration and Drying

Abstract

Vacuum concentration and dehydration by spray drying are valuable techniques for the evaporation of water and are used to stabilize most dairy ingredients. In view of the increasing development of filtration processes, there is a need for the dairy industry to improve their understanding of the effects of controlling these processes on the concentration and spray drying and hence on the quality of protein powders. Several authors have reported that proteins have an important role in the mechanisms of water transfer during drying and rehydration. The residence time of the droplet and the powder in the spray dryer is so short that it is very difficult to implement studies on the mechanisms of the structural changes in the protein without fundamental research into the process/product interactions. However, many studies have reported that the main structural and functional modifications occur before spray drying; that is, during concentration by vacuum evaporation and heat treatment. Following an extensive introduction focusing on dairy powders, this article covers three significant areas: an overview of the main dairy powder processes, the properties of these powders, and the effects of the processes on powder quality.