Dive Brief:

• Acid whey, which contains the same minerals as milk, is ripe for a move from use as fertilizer to use in high-quality dairy products, Arla Foods Ingredients announced during a recent webinar.
• "It is an exceptional raw material, but many processors don't know how to unlock its potential," Claus Andersen of Arla Foods said during the webinar, according to Food Ingredients First.
• In the case of Greek yogurt production, Arla offers a solution where 100% of the milk is used; no acid whey is generated, which eliminates the need for separation and filtration equipment. The use of the product requires few or no adjustments to production lines for dairy products like yogurt and cream cheese.

Dive Insight:

Claus Andersen, of Arla Foods Ingredients, said acid whey is at the same stage as whey from cheese making was 30 years ago when it was considered a byproduct of minimal value. Whey is now a high-value ingredient in sectors such as dairy, bakery and sports nutrition.

Recently, General Mills, as one of the country's largest producers of Greek yogurt, announced it wants to put a neutralized acid whey byproduct to use as well. The company filed a patent to put the product into food products such as baked foods, beverages, snacks, dry meal products and more, according to BakingBusiness.com.

A couple of years ago, Chobani developed a reverse osmosis filtration system that converts its acid whey byproduct into pure water and a concentrated form of whey that can be used in animal feed.

This type of ingredient reallocation could prove valuable. The repurposing of ingredients, where food companies reduce waste streams by using byproducts and waste materials to create foods, is a niche sector with mainstream potential, according to the New Hope Network.