Whey Beverages and Drinks

The use of whey for the manufacture of whey-based beverage has been the most traditional approach to whey utilization for human nutrition. Whey based fruit beverages are manufactured by mixing of appropriate fruit pulp/ juice or juice concentrate and processed whey. The more sophisticated technological approaches include the painstaking selection of proper flavour or flavour blends, complex whey treatment operations and often the inclusion of additional nutrients to increase the consumer appeal. The pH adjustment in the heat processed long shelf life beverage is important in order to minimize heat induced whey protein precipitation.

A variety of whey beverages consisting of plain, carbonated, alcoholic, soy and fruit have been successfully developed and marketed all over the world, because they hold great potential for utilising whey solids. In India also, a number of refreshing whey drinks including the low cost ‘Whevit’ and ‘Acidowhey’ are in the market.These drinks are preferably prepared from paneer/chhana whey, which is acidic and has low protein content.Whevit, an orange, pineapple, lime or mango flavoured alcoholic drink from whey,was developed at National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal. For its manufacture,fresh whey is efficiently separated in cream separator, deproteinised by steaming for half an hour and cooled to room temperature. To the deproteinised and clarified whey, 22-23% of 50% sugar solution is added followed by 2-2.1% of 10% citric acid, colour and flavour. It is then fermented by incubation at 22oC for 14-16 hr with a 1% culture of Saccharomyces cerevisae. The product is bottled, pasteurized (75oC/30 min), cooled and stored at low temperature (5-10oC). Final product contain 0.5 to 1% alcohol.

For the manufacture of Acidowhey that is a non-alcoholic whey drink, deproteinised whey is fermented with a culture of Lactobacillus acidophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus (1:1). Sugar and flavour are then added and the product is reheated at 75oC for 5 min, cooled to 5oC, packed in pouches and stored in refrigerated conditions.

The common operation for the manufacture of whey-based beverage is to blend the whey and fruit juice components, followed by proper heat processing and packaging.The sedimentation problem can be encountered by centrifugal clarification to remove all sedimentable casein fine particles. The pH adjustment of the final product should be controlled accurately, especially if subsequent severe heat processing is to be used. To minimize heat induced whey protein precipitation, adjustment below pH 3.8-3.6 is necessary as the whey protein fraction becomes resistant to coagulation below this critical range.

Technological problems may be encountered also when the desired formulation contains additional components that interfere with processing or final product quality. Flavour losses with some fruit juices may be encountered in UHT processing of the final product, especially in the direct type machines employing a flash cooling vacuum chamber.

Packaging of whey based soup and fruit beverages varies considerably. The tetrapack paper based containers of 200 ml capacities predominate in India, while 250 or 500 ml plastic cups with aluminium foil are also being used, probably for the manufacturer’s convenience in western countries. Metal cans, glass or rigid plastic containers have very seldom been used for these products.