UTILIZATION OF BY-PRODUCT OF CHEESEMAKING AGRIBUSINESS INDUSTRY FOR DEVELOPMENT OF FOOD PRODUCTS AND REDUCTION OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

Abstract

The uses of by-products of cheese industry is still not significant in Brazil, since about 15% of liquid whey is used as raw material in food industry technology. The liquid whey has excellent technological properties, making it an alternative to minimize environmental impacts, besides it enables the use of the same nutritional properties in the production of new food products or adding value to the existing ones. The present study aimed to use liquid whey as an ingredient in the formulation of ice cream, hard candies, ham and breads, as well as to evaluate the influence of it in technological characteristics of the products and to quantify the volume of whey used. In order to evaluate the use of liquid whey, the products were developed with partial or total replacement of milk or water by whey, being the substitution accompanied by the determination of centesimal composition, as well as evaluating the visual characteristics of each product. The results show that the preparation of the products under study with substitution of raw milk or water is viable, proving that using liquid whey is a technological possibility of using a by-product considered to be an environmental pollutant. It was concluded that the use of liquid whey in the food industry reduces the environmental impact, since there is a reduction in the volume of whey discharged into the environment.