Outstanding whey protein particules produced by dry heating
Résumé
Whey proteins are derived from milk and are widely used in the food industry for their nutritional and functional properties. Many studies have been undertaken on the improvement of the functional properties of these proteins, mainly by their heat-induced denaturation/aggregation. Depending on the heating conditions, it is possible to obtain a variety of aggregates that have different structures and different physicochemical properties, leading to remarkable techno-functional properties, such as gelling, foaming or emulsification (Nicolai et al., 2011). While many works has been dedicated to heat treatments of whey proteins as present in a solution, very few studies considered heat as applied in a dry state, say by applying heat on powder. This heating pathway was reported to strongly affect the heat-induced gelling properties of whey proteins (Gulzar et al., 2012). The purpose of this study was to produce particles having high functional properties by dry heating of a whey protein isolate powder. Power composition effects were investigated on the formation and the structure of particles. Moreover, special attention was paid to the role of lactose in the formation of these uncommon particles.