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DISTRIBUTION OF THIS DOCUMENT 1s M m , , TEWand used to formulate products such as ice cream, cream cheese, milk chocolate and other products for consumer evaluation. Freeze-concentrated skim milk powder was reconstituted and compared against fresh skim milk as well as skim milk reconstituted from commercial liquid concentrate and nonfat dry milk powder for organoleptic quality and consumer acceptability. RESULTS The Niro PDU was successfully installed at Galloway West and brought up to 3-A processing standards. The GRAS status of freeze-concentrated milk ingredients was affirmed by an expert safety panel. The semi-commercial unit was used to freeze concentrate skim milk and whey protein concentrate. Continuous runs of up to 51 0-hours were achieved. Projected energy costs are higher for freeze concentration than they are for other concentration technologies currently in use by the dairy industry. However, a full evaluation of the operating, cleaning and energy utilization costs that differentiate freeze concentration from other evaporation technologies indicate that commercial-scale freeze concentration should be more economical than current evaporation technologies. This is due primarily to the lower product losses incurred with freeze concentration. Consumer evaluations documented that the functional and organoleptic properties of freeze-concentrated skim milk are as good as or better than those of fresh skim milk, current skim milk concentrates or nonfat dry milk powders. The semi-commercial scale production undertaken on the PDU did encounter problems with inconsistent product quality (primarily involving product oxidation) but these were not considered to be serious obstacles to commercialscale production. The results suggest that, once commercialized, freezeconcentrated milk powders and concentrates should fill significant added-value market niches in both domestic and international markets. 4-6 1-2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARYFreeze concentration is a process for removing water from food systems by crystallizing the water as ice and subsequently removing the ice crystals from the food system. Initial calculations indicated that the removal of water from foods by crystallization should be more energy efficient than its removal by evaporation. In addition, freeze concentration offers the advantage of minimizing the heat-abuse of sensitive milk components (such as proteins and flavors) and consequently an opportunity for producing dairy ingredients with enhanced functional and organoleptic qualities. Freeze concentration is already used commercially for concentrating juice, beer and coffee products.The feasibility of freeze-concentrating milk was demonstrated on a pilot-plant scale during Phase I of a project undertaken by a consortium comprised of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), Dairy Research Foundation, and Niro (formerly Grenco). The U.S. Department of Energy joined the consortium for phase II. The objective of the Phase II study was to prove the technical feasibility of, the economics of, an...

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