Milk Protein Concentrate, a product with high protein content.
Product information
Milk Protein Concentrates (MPC) are concentrates made from skimmed milk. Their protein content (serum proteins and caseins) in dry matter is higher than 42%. Preferably even higher than 75%. The protein content can be adjusted by using different membrane concentration levels. It varies between 42% up to 85%.
These protein concentrates are mostly used to standardize the milk in cheese manufacturing and for their functional properties in the food industry. But also for their nutritional properties in diet products
The main MPC properties are stability to heat treatment, solubility and coagulation. Because they also support in preserving taste they are used in cheese and dairy industry. When using in a very high dosage the cheese manufacturing can be done without serum separation. In the dairy industry these MPC‘s are used in (fermented) milks and dairy beverages to give texture and gel strength. It helps to either adapt to a certain protein composition of milk, but also to create an specific texture. It’s also used to product dairy beverages with little to no milk. Besides that it is applied because of its coagulation properties.
Applications
MPCs are used as dairy ingredients in food applications.
- Dairy produce
- Cheese: during the production of cheese, MPCs are added to the milk to increase the protein content and to improve the performance
- Ice cream
- Bakery
- Desserts
- Meat
Product’s advantages
There are various advantages and functional properties of MPC related to food production.
- They support solubility and stability to heat treatment
- Taste preserving properties
- They have browning, emulsifier and foaming properties
- They have coagulation properties