Potential Applications of Milk Fractions and Valorization of Dairy By-Products: A Review of the State-of-the-Art Available Data, Outlining the Innovation Potential from a Bigger Data Standpoint

The unique composition of milk makes this basic foodstuff into an exceptional raw material for the production of new ingredients with desired properties and diverse applications in the food industry. The fractionation of milk is the key in the development of those ingredients and products;hence continuous research and development on this field, especially various levels of fractionation and separation by filtration, have been carried out. This review focuses on the production of milk fractions as well as their particular properties, applications and processes that increase their exploitation. Whey proteins and caseins from the protein fraction are excellent emulsifiers and protein supplements. Besides, they can be chemically or enzymatically modified to obtain bioactive peptides with numerous functional and nutritional properties. In this context, valorization techniques of cheese-whey proteins, by-product of dairy industry that constitutes both economic and environmental problems, are being developed. Phospholipids from the milk fat fraction are powerful emulsifiers and also have exclusive nutraceutical properties. In addition, enzyme modification of milk phospholipids makes it possible to tailor emulsifiers with particular properties. However, several aspects remain to be overcome;those refer to a deeper understanding of the healthy, functional and nutritional properties of these new ingredients that might be barriers for its use and acceptability. Additionally, in this review, alternative applications of milk constituents in the non-food area such as in the manufacture of plastic materials and textile fibers are also introduced. The unmet needs, the cross-fertilization in between various protein domains,the carbon footprint requirements, the environmental necessities, the health and wellness new demand, etc., are dominant factors in the search for innovation approaches;these factors are also outlining the further innovation potential deriving from those “apparent” constrains obliging science and technology to take them into account.

Paving the High-Way to Sustainable, Value Adding Open-Innovation Integrating Bigger-Data Challenges: Three Examples from Bio-Ingredients to Robust Durable Applications of Electrochemical Impacts

A trilogy review, based on more than 300 references, is used to underline three challenges facing 1) the supply of sustainable, durable and protected biosourced ingredients such as lipids, 2) the accounting for valuable bio-by-products, such as whey proteins that have added-value potential removing their environmental weight and 3) the practical reliable synthetic biology and evolutionary engineering that already serve as a technology and science basis to expand from, such as for biopolymer growth. Bioresources, which are the major topic of this review, must provide answers to several major challenges related to health, food, energy or chemistry of tomorrow. They offer a wide range of ingredients which are available in trees, plants, grasses, vegetables, algae, milk, food wastes, animal manures and other organic wastes. Researches in this domain must be oriented towards a bio-sustainable-economy based on new valuations of the potential of those renewable biological resources. This will aim at the substitution of fossil raw materials with renewable raw materials to ensure the sustainability of industrial processes by providing bioproducts through innovative processes using for instance micro-organisms and enzymes (the so-called white biotechnology). The final stage objective is to manufacture high value-added products gifted with the right set of physical, chemical and biological properties leading to particularly innovative applications. In this review, three examples are considered in a green context open innovation and bigger data environment. Two of them (lipids antioxidants and milk proteins) concern food industry while the third (biomonomers and corresponding bioplastics and derivatives) relates to biomaterials industry. Lipids play a crucial role in the food industry, but they are chemically unstable and very sensitive to atmospheric oxidation which leads to the formation of numerous by-compounds which have adverse effects on lipids quality attributes and on the nutritive value of meat. To overcome this problem, natural antioxidants, with a positive impact on the safety and acceptability of the food system, have been discovered and evaluated. In the same context, milk proteins and their derivatives are of great interest. They can be modified by enzymatic means leading to the formation of by-products that are able to increase their functionality and possible applications. They can also produce bioactive peptides, a field with almost unlimited research potential. On the other hand, biosourced chemicals and materials, mainly biomonomers and biopolymers, are already produced today. Metabolic engineering tools and strategies to engineer synthetic enzyme pathways are developed to manufacture, from renewable feedstocks, with high yields, a number of monomer building-block chemicals that can be used to produce replacements to many conventional plastic materials. Through those three examples this review aims to highlight recent and important advancements in production, modification and applications of the studied bioproducts. Bigger data analysis and artificial intelligence may help reweight practical and theoretical observations and concepts in these fields;helping to cross the boarders of expert traditional exploration fields and sometime fortresses.