Thank you - I recently listened to a news story about a cheese company finding profitable uses for the whey, the byproduct of cheesemaking, which was fascinating. I wondered at the time whether the company was using pasteurized milk, I assume they probably are, and I wonder whether it changes the protein value, or nutritional value of the protein, in the whey, which is apparently being dried and sold as a nutritional supplement at a pretty substantial profit. The story did a brief history of what used to be considered a waste product sometimes dumped on pastures, and sometimes sold for pennies to hog farmers, among other things. Very interesting.
When making cheese from pasteurized milk in a large cheese factory, the practice is to use LOW TEMPERATURE PASTEURIZATION which is at 145 degrees for 30 min. rather than the high temperature used for "ultra pasteurization" that is used for "drinking milk". The ultrapasteurized milk has proteins that are so denatured and the calcium is altered in such a way that the milk can't flocculate (thicken up and turn into a curd). But the low temp pasteurization isn't so hard on the proteins and calcium and they will still be useable for cheesemaking. It's common practice to have to add calcium chloride into the milk so that the calcium bonds are strong enough to be able to form the curd (after pasteurization).
Even when using the low temp pasteurization they have to add cultures (and usually calcium chloride) back into the milk so that the cultures can begin to proliferate.
It's kind of like what we talk about here when we say that antibiotics create more viable, strong bacteria. Same in milk. As soon as it's pasteurized, it becomes a great place for the proliferation of "bad bacteria" as there is not a healthy flora alive anymore to balance out the mix. (Sound familiar?) Therefore, after pasteurizing, the "good bacteria cultures" have to be added back in when the milk is at a temperature that is conducive to that particular bacteria mix is reached and then the temp is maintained so that those bacteria can begin to proliferate by consuming the lactose in the milk.
Now interestingly - if you drink milk there is a lot of
lactose - milk sugar in layman's terms - that is present so the carbohydrate content is relatively high in milk. Ever noticed that cheese has very low carbs? That's because the cultures - the good bacteria - EAT THE LACTOSE and produce lactic acid in it's place. The lactose is digested by our little friendly, healthy LABs and they acidify (lower the pH) the milk in the process.
The heightened acid (Lowered pH) produces an environment that is hostile to "bad bacteria". So we get a low carb end product AND wonderful "probiotics" in the process.
These little guys are wonderful!
Now for dried whey power... It all depends on how they are treating it after the cheesemaking process. If they are dehydrating at a high temperature you will have issues with the denaturing of the proteins. However, there are some whey mfgrs that make their whey from grass fed milk which has been dehydrated at a lower temperature in an attempt to make the nutrients as bioavailable as possible. Those are the whey powders that may be worth purchasing.
The whey - liquid right out of the cheesemaking process - is great for animal feeding (including chickens & hogs) and also makes a somewhat decent fertilizer. You have to remember, however, that the whey is acidic due to the lactic acid (lowered pH) so you might have to be careful when using as fertilizer.
You can also dump it on your compost pile....LABs help jump-start that process as well.
So.... TMI?
ETA - you wouldn't use the powdered whey for animal feed.
