Dairy Products
Enzymes have been used in dairy products for centuries
The oldest reported production of cheese dates back over 3000 years to the ancient Egyptians. In those days cheese was most likely made by storing fresh milk in animal stomachs. Putting milk in an animal stomach resulted in coagulation, the separation of solid curd from the whey.
It was only in the late 19th century that the Danish pharmacist Christian Ditlev Ammentorp Hansen discovered the active compound in animal stomachs that caused milk clotting; the enzyme chymosin. The discovery of chymosin revolutionised the dairy world, leading to the development of rennet, the first standardised dairy enzyme product. Up until the discovery of chymosin, cheese was made by adding small pieces of animal stomachs or extracts of them to milk. Using standardised rennet dramatically improved the cheese making process and resulted in a significant reduction in contamination of cheeses with food spoilage bacteria. Rennet, derived from animal stomachs, has been used for cheese making all over the world ever since.
However, the world is changing and animal rennet is no longer sufficient to cater to all needs. As a result, alternative milk clotting enzymes that can be used for vegetarian cheese production and some for organic cheese production have been developed, such as fermentation produced enzymes.
Development of improved milk clotting enzymes
Subsequently, milk clotting enzymes that enabled the production of better tasting cheese were also developed. Besides a better taste, these new generation milk clotting enzymes are more efficient and sustainable, resulting in more cheese per litre of milk. Use of these new improved enzymes is an important element in reducing the carbon footprint of cheese production.
Addressing the challenge of lactose intolerance
While milk is a highly nutritious food staple, it is not accessible to a large part of the world population. Many people develop lactose intolerance, which makes the consumption of dairy products a negative experience. Lactose intolerance is caused by the fact that many adults stop producing the enzyme lactase that helped them convert the milk sugar lactose when they were breastfed. However, this lack of lactase production can easily be compensated by adding natural lactase enzymes to the diet or by pretreating dairy products with lactase. Lactase treatment of dairy products converts milk sugar (lactose) that is difficult to digest, into types of sugar that are easily digestible. In this way, lactase helps to make nutritious and healthy dairy products available to a large adult population all over the world, supporting United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (UN SDG) no. 12.
Other dairy enzymes
Although milk clotting enzymes (coagulants) and lactases are by far the most important enzymes used in the manufacture of dairy products, other enzymes are also used in niche applications.
Enzymes including lactose oxidase and phospholipase are used to generate piquant taste notes in specific cheeses such as provolone. The alternative is to let this happen by natural fermentation, but this involves a high risk of spoilage and, subsequently, increased food safety risk.
Other enzymes (proteases) are used to treat whey proteins that are used in both infant nutrition and sports nutrition. These enzymes will predigest milk proteins, making them more easily digestible for infants and athletes.
Over the past 10-15 years, a number of novel enzymes have been designed for applications such as increasing cheese yield through higher fat retention or allowing for the cost-effective conversion of lactose to lactobionic acid, which may also be used to increase cheese yield. These types of enzymes contribute to reducing the carbon footprint of dairy products, giving them a more sustainable profile.
Making a great contribution to sustainability
Enzymes are nature’s solution to making difficult processes possible at moderate temperatures and under environmentally friendly conditions. Alternatives to enzymatic processes typically require extensive chemical processes. They are often very energy demanding and frequently less specific, which negatively affects taste as well as yield.
Milk clotting can take place without enzymes, using a highly energy intensive filtration process. The final result resembles cheese, but is of a much lower quality. Likewise, it is possible to remove lactose without enzymes, but that requires an energy extensive filtration technology.
Other processes are difficult to control without the use of nature’s toolbox in the form of enzymes. Creating the right flavour note without the use of enzymes is virtually impossible, as is the generation of a perfectly designed whey hydrolysate for infant nutrition products.
The use of enzymes in the dairy industry offers a green and sustainable alternative to industrial milk processing. It helps reduce our sector’s carbon footprint and CO2 emissions by producing dairy products more efficiently with minimal energy requirements. Furthermore, and most importantly, enzymes help the dairy industry to produce nutritious, healthy and great-tasting food products.
