Arla Foods Ingredients milk fractionation technology

A patented method, called milk fractionation, to separate milk into its different protein components has been developed by Arla Foods Ingredients (AFI).

The technology is designed to enable scientists, nutritionists and health professionals to create next generation dairy products and nutrient-specific foods by the selection of specific pure milk proteins, for example, casein and serum whey proteins.

The separation of milk’s different proteins from whey previously relied on cheese-making as whey is a bi-product of this process. Now, by by-passing the cheese-making process, Arla’s technology not only allows for a bigger potential raw material pool, it also creates protein streams in a controlled process with reduced processing steps and a more gentle processing of the milk.

The milk fractionation process is currently being used for infant formula at AFI’s dairy in Videbaek, Denmark.

AFI expects to launch its first organic private label infant formula solutions based on the technology during 2022.