Kontext

The dairy sector is a strategic sector in the Catalan agrifood industry, due to both its economic importance and its contribution to the development and attachment of the rural population, which has been in a crisis since the end of the dairy quotas system, leading to the closure, transformation and diversification of several companies in the sector.
The increase in the demand for locally produced, high-quality innovative products means that cheese producers are considering developing new products to add value to milk and dairy products to open up new markets for sales, both in Spain and abroad.
Whey is at present a dairy by-product from cheese with high nutritional value, which mainly consists of a soluble protein fraction (whey protein), and residual fat, lactose, minerals and vitamins. Whey is currently discarded as waste in most dairies, and it is very expensive to destroy, as it contains a significant proportion of organic matter (COD of 70-80 g/l). The absence of valorisation of this by-product  leads to significant losses in economic, nutritional and environmental terms.
In the case of whey from cow's milk, there is a standardised valorisation procedure for whey proteins for its use in formulas for babies as a substitute for breast milk, or as inclusion in food for athletes. These  methods do not exist for whey from sheep and goats due to the small amount of whey produced.
MONTBRÚ, a livestock farming company and producer of goat's milk and dairy products in the Moianès region, has gone a step further in the development of innovative products. Taking the whey from the cheeses they produce as the starting point, their idea is to develop two products:  a whey-based dairy drink for athletes and a whey-based kefir.