Sheep Milk Research
Recent Research and the Whey of the Future
Alistair Carr
School of Food and Nutrition
Massey University
Recent Research
Milk variability and the impact on rennet gel formation
Processing
Product
Development
4th Year Food Technology Student Projects in 2015
Opening up the New Zealand cheese market – Capturing the green field markets Sheep milk paneer
Tan Xiao Ping
Grace Powell
Sheep milk variation - Rennet Gel Formation
… at least according to the literature
Component Average content (%) Range (%)
Water 81.60 79.27 – 83.80
Lactose 4.61 4.10 – 4.95
Fat 7.09 5.10 – 8.70
Crude protein (Total nitrogen x 6.38) 5.72 4.75 – 6.60
Casein 4.44
Whey proteins 0.98
Non-protein nitrogen 0.047
Ash 0.91 0.70 – 1.10
Total solids 18.40 16.20 – 20.73
Solids non-fat 11.31
Ramos, M., & Juarez, M. (2011). Milk | Sheep Milk. In J. W. Fuquay (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Dairy Sciences (Second Edition) (pp. 494- 502). San Diego: Academic Press.
Unfortunately the milk we collected from Kingsmeade did not conform to literature…. Total solids of 30%!!!
International sheep dairy literature is not necessarily applicable to New Zealand
How does milk total solids impact on cheese manufacturing?
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
0 5000 10000
Storage Modulus (G'), Pa
Time after rennet addition, s 0
200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800
0 5000 10000
Storage Modulus (G'), Pa
Time after rennet addition, s
Milk Add
Rennet
Wait until gel
forms Cut Cook Press
Total Solids Changes the behaviour of gel formation
25% TS 10% TS
How does milk total solids impact on cheese manufacturing?
Why is cutting
time important?
Outcome: Tool for predicting cutting time
• Accurate day to day prediction of cheese cutting times throughout season
• Minimisation of fines losses
• Avoid out of spec moisture cheese:
o Shelf life o Texture
Outcome: Tool for predicting cutting time
Thank You to Blue River – For the Milk Powder
on which this work was based!
Product Development – Beyond the speciality cheese shelf
• Marketing
– Provide recipes and meal ideas.
– Exploit rise in the popularity of ready-made
sauces for Indian cuisine that are generally used with meat
• Selling Price: $4.50 to $5.50 per 100g
• Estimated market size: 31,000 units per year
• (Based on consumer data and market information for Indian ready-made sauces
.
Thank You to Kingsmeade for supplying fresh milk!
Component % of total whey stream
% of whey stream solids (dry basis)
% of total milk solids in the whey stream
% recovery of milk solids in paneer
Fat 0.72 9.49 8.82 91.18
Casein 0.23 3.07 4.44 95.56
Whey/lactose 6.60 87.44 81.67 18.33
Total solids 7.54 100 33.80 66.20
• Processing
– Average yield: 22% i.e. 220g from 1kg milk – 7.5% of total solids lost in the whey stream
• 9.5% Fat; 3.5% Casein
– Fines losses minimised by acidifying to a pH of 5.3
– Pressing curd at 10kPa resulted in a texture similar to bovine paneer.
– In-package heat treatment not exceeding 30 min at 100°C recommended for shelf life extension
Product Development – Beyond the speciality cheese shelf
Losses from Paneer Process
Whey Losses….
For every 100kg cheese there is about 400kg whey
Currently whey is predominantly “discarded” as fertiliser or pig feed
Can we do something more than this?
High-value food ingredients from NZ sheep milk whey
Can we do something more than this?
Dr Abby Thompson, Riddet Innovation
Dr Li Day, Dr Linda Samuelsson, AgResearch Industry Partners
• Kingsmeade Artisan Cheese
• Origin Earth
• Meyer Gouda Cheese
• Over the Moon Dairy
• GXsim Ltd
YES!
High-value food ingredients from NZ sheep milk whey
Can we do something more than this?
Bioprocess Resource Alliance – Agreed
Funded Master Research Programme
‘devise ways to increase the volume of high value materials derived from secondary bioprocessing streams through smart science and
technology’.
High-value food ingredients from NZ sheep milk whey
Maheeka Weerwarama
The underlying hypothesis for the proposed Masters project is that New Zealand sheep milk whey
contains valuable compounds and/or has valuable physical/structural properties which makes it
suitable for production of high value ingredients for foods and/or beverages.
Estimated that sheep whey based beverages could add
an estimated $2.3m p.a. to the NZ economy
Sheep whey non-protein advantages over bovine whey that are nutritionally desirable:
• 43 mg Vitamin C/ L compared to 20 mg Vitamin C/L
• comparatively high levels of both B vitamins and vitamin D.
Sheep whey protein advantages over bovine whey:
• high levels of serum albumin (4.0 cf 2.9%)
• immunoglobulin (4.5 cf 2.8%)
High-value food ingredients from NZ
sheep milk whey
• Objective 1: Generation of a data-base of NZ sheep whey components from cheese making waste-streams from a variety of cheese making processes, including proteins, minerals and vitamins.
• Objective 2: Characterisation of functional properties of
sheep whey including foaming, heat stability, pH and gelation.
High-value food ingredients from NZ
sheep milk whey
High-value food ingredients from NZ sheep milk whey
Expected publications
• 1. Literature review on NZ sheep dairying industry
development and whey stream including the compositional data
• 2. Functional properties of sheep whey (emulsification and gelation/textural properties).
Commercial opportunities:
• ‘Functional water’
• Whey protein concentrate
• Fermented products
• Healthy protein drinks
