Food and Environment Safety - Journal of Faculty of Food Engineering, Ştefan cel Mare University – Suceava Year X, No1 - 2011 43 STUDIES REGARDING NEW WAY TO RENDER WHEY PROFITABLE Adriana DABIJA1, Gabriela CONSTANTINESCU (POP) 1, Ioana REBENCIUC1, Amelia BUCULEI1 1Stefan cel Mare University of Suceava, Faculty of Food Engineering, 13 Universitatii str., Suceava, Romania, adabija@usv.ro Abstract. Whey may be defined broadly, as the serum or watery part of milk remaining after the separation of curd resulting from the coagulation of milk by acid or proteolytic enzymes. Whey has been used by many researchers as raw material for the alcoholic fermentation process for it contains a high lactose quantity and it is widely available. One of the most simple and economical solutions for rendering whey profitable as secondary product of cheese fabrication by cheese/ dairy manufacturers is to obtain whey drinks for it has been used for long time by many researchers as raw material for the alcoholic fermenation process. One of the whey drinks proposed is whey beer made from deproteinized whey (as a byproduct of sweet cheese fabrication). The paper presents the research results in obtaining a drink from deproteinized whey resembling beer. Three samples have been experimented. The three beer samples have been analyzed from the sensorial and physical- chemical point of view as well. The second of them, containing 30% deproteinized whey has been the most appreciated. The finished product - whey beer is a product with traits similar to those of normal beer: pleasant, specific smell, hop flavour, bitter-sweet pleasant taste. Keywords: byproduct, deproteinized whey, whey beer, dairy industry, lactose Introduction As secondary product of cheese fabrication, rendering whey valuable represents a major problem of dairy industry that needs simple and economical solutions. On the basis of cheese consumption and production details, it is estimated that approximately 9 million tones of cheese per annum is produced within the EU, giving rise to an annual whey production figure of the order of 50 million m3 [1, 2]. Whey may be defined broadly, as the serum or watery part of milk remaining after the separation of curd resulting from the coagulation of milk by acid or proteolytic enzymes. The type and composition of whey in dairy plants depends mainly upon the processing technique resulting in casein removal from fluid milk [1, 3]. About 50% of total world cheese-whey production is treated and transformed into various food products, of which about 45% is used directly in liquid form, 30% in the form of powdered cheese whey, 15% as lactose and de-lactosed by-products, and the rest as cheese-whey-protein concentrates [1, 4]. The world whey production is estimated to be of 108 tons/ year. It is an important source of environment pollution. Its biological treatment by the conventional aerobic process is very expensive and most of the dairy plants do not have a treating system. As a consequence, 47% of whey contaminates rivers, lakes and soil causing serious pollution problems [5]. To obtain whey drinks may be one of these solutions. Whey has been used by many researchers as raw material for the alcoholic fermentation process for it contains a high lactose quantity and it is Food and Environment Safety - Journal of Faculty of Food Engineering, Ştefan cel Mare University – Suceava Year X, No1 - 2011 44 largely available [6]. It is known that whey contains 55% of the milk nutrients: lactose, soluble proteins, lipids, mineral substances (over 50% of these being NaCl and KCl), organic acids (lactic acid, citric acid), non protein nitrogenous compounds (urea and uric acid), and group B vitamins (Table 1). Until now non alcoholic drinks as well as alcoholic ones (slightly alcoholized with max. 1% alcohol) and drinks similar to beer and wine have been obtained from deproteinized whey. The paper presents the research results to obtain a drink from deproteinized whey resembling beer. Table 1. The typical whey composition [3] Whey type Components Sweet whey [g/L] Acid whey [g/L] Dry substance, of which: 63-70 63-70 - lactose 46-52 44-46 - protein 6-10 6-8 - lipids 3 2 - calcium 0.4-0.6 1.2-1.6 - phosphate 1-3 2-4.5 - lactate 2 6.4 Materials and methods To obtain beer under lab conditions we used deproteinized sweet whey from S.C. TOCAR PROD SRL Radauti Company that presented the following physico- chemical traits: - total dry substance – 5.62%, of which: fat – 0.02%; proteins – 0.47%; lactose – 4.50%; - acidity – 15.8°T; - density – 1.028 g/L. In the fabrication systems we used: malt, hopped malt provided by S.C. Bermas S.A. Suceava, pellets hops, sugar, caramel, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Saccharomyces carlsbengensis species yeast, dry raisins. The malt wortt as raw material presented the following physico- chemical traits: - extract content – 10°P; - pH – 6.0; - colour – 0.8 mL I2 0.1n/100 mL. The methods of analysis used in the experiments were the following: - acidity – titrimetric method; - dry substance content – refractometric method; - extract content – refractometric method; - pH–potentiometer method; - CO2 content – according to legislation. The finished product- whey beer was analyzed from the sensorial point of view using the marking scale method and from the physico-chemical point of view (colour, acidity, CO2 content). The marking scale method consists in evaluating each sensorial property by comparing it with marking scales from 0 to 5 point and by obtaining the average mark from the tasters group. For this purpose we established a tasting committee formed by 7 members who had been previously trained regarding the organization of tasting meeting, its purpose and the marking system used in the tasting note papers to eradicate possible errors that can occur when appreciating the analyzed samples. On the basis of the average total mark there has been led an evaluation of the quality level of whey beer samples from the sensorial point of view using a 0 to 20 points scale. Results and discussion The obtaining of whey beer under lab conditions followed the steps of industrial process. First of all the two raw materials whey and malt wortt have been analyzed from the physico-chemical point of view (quality reception) and then dosed according to the followed fabrication recipes (Table 2). For colour correction caramel has been used. Food and Environment Safety - Journal of Faculty of Food Engineering, Ştefan cel Mare University – Suceava Year X, No1 - 2011 45 Table 2. The fabrication recipes to obtain whey beer *Saccharomyces cerevisiae species yeast; ** Saccharomyces carlsbergensis species yeast After being blended, pasteurized and cooled at room temperature the samples have been inseminated with yeast and subjected to a first fermentation for 24 hours at a temperature of 20-22°C (room temperature). The prefermented whey beer has then been filtered, corked in 500 mL bottles and subjected to a final fermentation at a temperature of 5-6°C (refrigerator) for sample 2 and 20-22°C (room temperature) for sample 1 and 3. The three beer samples have then been analyzed from the sensorial and physico- chemical point of view. The results of the sensorial analysis are presented in table 3. One of the beer quality characteristics, appreciated by many consumers is the foam’s height when pouring beer into glass, foam that has to persist for quite a while. For checking this, there we used 2 special glasses in which whey beer cooled at 10°C was poured and soon after the foam height was measured. The foam persistence time was measured from the pouring moment untill its total disappearance. The results of the determinations made are presented in table 4. Table 3. The evaluation of quality level of the whey beer samples analyzed Sample Total average mark Appre- ciation Product characterizatio n Sample 2 18.2 Very good Whey beer has positive, specific, well distinguished organoleptic traits. It does not have any obvious flaws. Sample 1 12.5 Sample 3 13.7 Satis- factory Whey beer has specific poorly distinguished traits as well as lacks and small flaws in spite of which can be situated at the admitted product standard level. Table 4. Checking the whey beer samples foam Foam checking Sample Foam layer height [mm] Foam stability [minutes] Sample 1 45 5 Sample 2 62 8 Sample 3 50 6 Table 5 shows the results of physico- chemical analyses for whey beer samples obtained under lab conditions. Table 5. The physico-chemical marks for the whey beer samples analyzed Physico-chemical marks Sample Colour [mL I2 0,1n/100 mL] Total acidity [mL NaoH 1n/ 100 mL] CO2 content[g/ 100 mL] Sample 1 1.2 2.48 0.28 Sample 2 1.3 2.3 0.45 Sample 3 1.1 2.7 0.32 The fabrication recipe for 1L of finished product Sample 1 Sample 2 Sample 3 Deproteinized whey, mL 900 300 900 Malt wortt, mL - 600 - Sugar, g 100 100 100 Yeast, g 2* 2* 2** Pellets hops 3 - 3 Dry raisins + - + Caramel + - + Food and Environment Safety - Journal of Faculty of Food Engineering, Ştefan cel Mare University – Suceava Year X, No1 - 2011 46 Conclusions To obtain whey drinks represents a viable solution of its rendering valuable that can be used by cheese / dairy manufacturers in our country. This paper aimed at rendering the deproteinized whey profitable (as byproduct of sweet cheese fabrication) to obtain whey beer. Of the 3 proposed samples the one that was unanimously appreciated was sample 2 that contained 30% deproteinized whey. It has been found out that lactose, the predominant component of whey does not influence the final taste of drink (the Saccharomyces yeast type does not metabolize lactose which has low sweetening power). The finished product - whey beer is a product with traits similar to those of normal beer: pleasant, specific smell, hop flavour, bitter-sweet pleasant taste. References 1. KOSSEVA, M., et al. – Use of immobilized biocatalysts in the processing of cheese whey, International Journal of Biological Macromolecules 45,2009, 437-447 2. PAMESAR, P., et al. – Bioutilisation of whey for lactic acid production, Food Chemistry 105, 2007, 1-14 3. JELEN, P – Whey processing, Encylcopedia of Dairy Sciences, vol.4, London Academic Press, 2003, 2739-2751 4. KOLLER, M. et al. – Polyhydroxyalkanoate production from whey by Pseudomonas hydrogenovora, Bioresource Technology 99, 2008, 4854-4863 5. OZMIHCI, S., KARGI, F. – Ethanol production from cheese whey powder solution in a packed bioreactor at different hydraulic residence times, Biochemical Engineering Journal 42, 2008, 180-185 6. KOUTINAS, A., et al. – Whey valorization: A complete and novel technology development for dairy industry starter culture production, Bioresource Technology 100, 2009, 3734-3739