Greek yogurt is frequently praised for its health benefits, but its acid whey byproduct is a growing concern for the environment.
Whey decomposition becomes toxic to natural environments, Modern Farmer explains, so companies like Chobani landspread the whey at farmers' fields. The acid whey can also be fermented at anaerobic digesters, where it will produce methane, according to Phys.org.
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"The whole goal is to take this problematic mixture of stuff — acid whey — and isolate all of the various components and find commercial uses for them," Dean Sommer, a food technologist with Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research (CDR) in the UW-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, told Phys.org. But acid whey is harder to separate than sweet whey is, since it is mostly water and contains less protein.
Phys.org explains that acid whey "turns into a sticky mess" after being dried, because of its lactic acid and galactose. So instead of drying it, Sommer's team is creating new filters, called membranes, to separate the acid whey's components. The CDR hopes that it can isolate lactose from the acid whey and sell it to food companies. And once all of the ingredients are separated, the acid whey will "just be water," Sommer told Phys.org, so it can be disposed of properly.
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