Microstructural Characterization of High-Protein Dairy Powders

Abstract

Dairy proteins are potential and multipurpose ingredients used to prepare various food products. It exhibits many beneficial functionalities and bioactivities in the processing of food products. All the functionalities of different dairy proteins depend on their peculiar structural characteristics. So, the present study aimed to characterize high-protein powders with different matrices (milk protein concentrate (MPC), rennet casein (RCN), micellar casein concentrate (MCC), whey protein isolate (WPI), and native whey concentrate (NWC)) for their composition, handling, and reconstitution properties, and microstructure and compared them with whole milk powder (WMP) and skim milk powder (SMP). The bulk density of the high-protein powders was significantly (p < 0.05) lower than WMP and NFDM. Due to the low bulk density of the high-protein powders, the wettability of these powders in the water was very high. Microstructural analysis of powders by scanning electron microscopy reveals that the high-protein powder had tetrahedron-to-polyhedron-shaped particles depending on the protein level. The idea regarding the powder’s morphology might be helpful for further improvement in the production processes to modify the functional properties of high-protein milk powders.

In Vitro Fermentation of Animal and Plant Protein Isolates by the Human Gut Microbiota Under High and Low Carbohydrate Conditions

“…Commercial protein isolates, as employed in this study, are known to contain trace quantities of nonprotein material, such as CHOs, lipids, phenolic compounds, and minerals. [ 56–59 ] These trace components may have had an influence on the fermentation properties of the protein isolates. However, we expect that this influence was minor due to the high production of protein‐fermentation metabolites, especially under low CHO conditions, and because of the significant correlations between many amino acids and their fermentation metabolites.…”