The present invention is related with the milk industry in general and with the processing industry of milk to produce for lactose-free milk and assessment of the subproduct in particular, and even more particularly in the milk processing industry through different separating means of the components such as micro- and nano filtration.

The function of the invention is to permit a lactose-free milk or a milk without lactose with a sensorial profile similar to that of normal pasteurized milk without lactose using the essential separation steps to reduce production costs, yet another objective was to determine the effect on the organoleptic characteristics of the concentration of natural milk components and concentrations which achieve the first objective, still another objective is to determine the ratio between retentate and permeate to obtain a sensorial profile equivalent to that of a normal pasteurized mil without lactose.

The present disclosure provides a novel spiral wound membrane leaf packet with a unique substantially non-permeable polymeric resin folding area that has desirable physical and chemical resistance to strong cleaning conditions in industrial filtration applications including food or dairy processing, and the method to make and use the spiral wound membrane leaf packet, and a membrane filtration module that include the novel spiral wound membrane leaf packet.

Methods, devices, and systems for concentrating breast milk are described. Concentrating nutrients in breast milk may be achieved using an apparatus comprising at least one forward osmotic membrane. In an example the apparatus can include a first sheet of material comprising a forward osmotic membrane, a second sheet of material sealed to the first sheet of material about a common outer perimeter thereof, the first sheet of material arranged so that water can traverse the forward osmotic membrane to an interior of the first and second sheets, and a dry carbohydrate within the interior of the first and second sheets exhibiting an osmotic draw property to draw water from un-concentrated, expressed human milk to form concentrated human milk. After a predetermined time, or upon the milk remaining after drawing of water through the membrane being a desired amount, the water draw can end.

The present invention provides a method for the manufacture of a cream cheese, the method comprising: (i) providing cheese curds, (ii) providing a whey protein solution by blending a sweet rennet whey solution and an acid whey solution, wherein the sweet rennet whey solution is present in a greater amount by weight than the acid whey solution, (iii) concentrating the whey protein solution by ultrafiltration to a whey protein concentration of from 5 to 15 wt %, based on the weight of the concentrated whey protein solution, (iv) subjecting the concentrated whey protein solution to a cavitation treatment sufficient to heat the concentrated whey protein solution to a temperature of at least 70 C. to provide a heat-treated whey protein solution, (v) mixing the cheese curds and the heat-treated whey protein solution to form a mixture, and (vi) subjecting the mixture to a texture-building heat-treatment to form the cream cheese, wherein the whey in the whey protein solution provided in step (ii) consists of whey from the sweet rennet whey solution and whey from the acid whey solution.

Disclosed are membrane separation cleaning processes and clean in place compositions for such membranes. The cleaning compositions can remove proteins, fats, and other food, beverage, and brewery based soils and offer an environmentally friendly alternative surfactant system to NPE. Branched extended chain PO/EO nonionic surfactants with certain characteristics may be used to provide superior cleaning to membranes. The specific surfactants may be used alone or in combination. In some embodiments, the surfactant package is used as part of a cleaning composition.

Concentrating nutrients in breast milk may be achieved using an apparatus comprising a first sheet of material comprising a forward osmotic membrane, a second sheet of material sealed to the first sheet of material about a common outer perimeter thereof, the first sheet of material arranged so that water can traverse the forward osmotic membrane to an interior of the first and second sheets, and a dry carbohydrate within the interior of the first and second sheets exhibiting an osmotic draw property to draw water from un-concentrated, expressed human milk to form concentrated human milk. After a predetermined time, or upon the milk remaining after drawing of water through the membrane being a desired amount, the water draw can end.