Consumer habits have changed since the pandemic, and this includes how much we’ve all been snacking! Convenient, healthy snacks are trending, and it’s an opportunity for the dairy industry. This is according to Audrey Girard, an assistant professor in the Department of Food Science at UW-Madison.
Girard got a grant from the Dairy Innovation Hub to look at incorporating lower value whey components into snacks. The goal would be to meet market demand while raising the value of those components.
“There’s certainly a demand for high-protein products and for better-for-you snacks,” she says. “So, we thought highlighting that we could add in protein from dairy as well as fiber would be really good within snack foods.”
Girard’s project is targeting three whey components from the cheese making process.
“When we make our cheese, there’s a lot of whey that’s left over,” she explains.
One of the fractions of whey are dairy protein isolates, which go toward nutritional products. Other fractions are whey protein phospholipid concentrate (WPPC), delactosed permeate (DLP) and glycomacropeptide (GMP). These are the three components Girard is looking at.
WPPC and DLP primarily go toward low value products like animal feed and fertilizer. But, both have nutritional value in terms of proteins and fiber.
“By putting them in human food, we would hope to drive the value up on those,” Girard says.
She says puffed snacks, such as Cheetos, are the food they’re hoping to add these ingredients to. She says protein would be welcome in a snack that has tons of carbs, but not a whole lot of other nutrients. A puffed snack is also logistically easier to work with than a compact snack, such as Gardetto’s.
Girard is working with the dairy industry to further the research and make sure what’s happening in the lab is feasible in practice.