The invention concerns a sweetened dairy product comprising a dairy material, at least one steviol glycoside, and a lactase enzyme.

The invention concerns a sweetened dairy product comprising a fermented dairy composition, and a specific steviol glycoside composition comprising Rebaudioside B. The invention also concerns specific steviol glycoside compositions comprising Rebaudioside B. The fermented dairy composition may comprise lactase and may be strained fermented dairy composition.

The invention concerns a sweetened dairy product comprising a dairy material, at least one steviol glycoside, at least one additive selected from a polysaccharide of fructose units and a salt.

A process for preparing a galacto-oligosaccharide product comprises exposing a permeate composition to one or more enzymes that convert one or more compounds in the permeate composition to one or more galacto-oligosaccharide compounds to provide a galacto-oligosaccharide solution, wherein at least about 10% of total sugar, by weight, in the galacto-oligosaccharide solution is in the form of the one or more galacto-oligosaccharide compounds, and concentrating at least a portion of the galacto-oligosaccharide solution to provide a galacto-oligosaccharide syrup. In an example, a galacto-oligosaccharide product, for example made by the process, comprises a dry or substantially dry powder including one or more dried compounds from a permeate composition and at least 20% by weight of one or more galacto-oligosaccharides, wherein the powder is free or substantially free from a drying agent.

A method of producing a beverage base or a component for a beverage or a food, providing Greek yogurt acid whey which has been obtained by separating the whey from Greek yogurt during a manufacturing process for the Greek yogurt; removing from the acid whey particulate material having a particle size of greater than 10 m; filtering the whey, directly or indirectly thus obtained to remove from the whey any bacteria and germinated bacterial spores therein having a molecular mass of at least 10,000 Daltons, the filtering being through a filter having a pore size of no greater than 1 m; and filtering the whey, directly or indirectly thus obtained to remove from the whey any enzymes therein having a molecular mass of at least 1,000 Daltons, the filtering being through a filter having a pore size of no greater than 0.1 m.

After whey protein concentration and recovery by ultrafiltration, the lactose in the permeate is further concentrated by nanofiltration, resulting in a retentate used as a substrate for enzymatic production of GOS by a ?-galactosidase enzyme. A GOS ingredient is obtained, characterized by having between 30 and 95% of GOS, which could improve the organoleptic properties (in terms of texture and flavor) of the products in which it is applied, and also giving it prebiotic properties.

The invention relates to the field of dry or powder dairy compositions. The present invention describes a method for producing a lactose reduced dairy powder comprising (i) treating a lactose comprising milk-based substrate with a first enzyme having transgalactosylase activity and a second enzyme having lactase activity to obtain a lactose reduced and galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS) comprising milk-based product (ii) preparing lactose reduced dairy powder from said lactose reduced and GOS comprising milk-based product.

Suggested is method for producing galactooligosaccharides, comprising the following steps: (i) Providing an aqueous milk sugar solution; (ii) Sterilising the milk sugar solution; (iii) Performing a transgalactosilation of the milk sugars present in the sterilised milk sugar solution of step (ii) by adding at least one beta-galactosidase within its optimum temperature and pH value intervals for a period of at least 30 minutes, obtaining a reaction mixture; (iv) Inhibiting the enzyme mass in the reaction mixture of step (iii), and (v) Confectioning the reaction mixture of step (iv), Wherein (a) The enzyme mass is wholly or partly inhibited by setting a pH value outside the activity optimum of the enzymes; (b) The reaction mixture, together with the inhibited enzyme mass, is subjected to filtration, obtaining a retentate (R1) and a permeate (P1); (c) The inhibited amount of enzymes is separated as a retentate (R1) and is fed back to step (iii); and (d) The permeate (P2) containing the galactooligosaccharides is passed on to step (v).

The invention relates to a method for manufacturing a strained fermented dairy product comprising the following successive steps: (a) providing a dairy product, (b) adding a lactase and a culture of bacteria comprising at least one strain of thermophilic lactic acid bacteria, with the provision that that it does not comprise any strain of mesophilic lactic acid bacteria, and fermenting the dairy product to obtain a fermented dairy product, and (c) separating a liquid whey from the fermented dairy product to obtain a strained fermented dairy product.

The invention relates to a method for manufacturing a strained fermented dairy product comprising the following successive steps: (a) providing a dairy product, (b) adding a lactase and a culture of bacteria comprising at least one strain of thermophilic lactic acid bacteria, with the provision that that it does not comprise any strain of mesophilic lactic acid bacteria, and fermenting the dairy product to obtain a fermented dairy product, and (c) separating a liquid whey from the fermented dairy product to obtain a strained fermented dairy product.