Innovations and opportunities in processes for concentrated and dried dairy products: can we do better to preserve the bioactivity of the dairy components? An overview

Spray drying is a well-established technique to convert a liquid solution into individual and solid particles. It is widely used in the food industry, especially in the dairy sector. This process allows the production of a wide range of dairy powders and determines their final functionality. The economic, social and environmental impact of each technological stage should be considered in order to optimize existing dairy processes and/or to develop innovative techniques to significantly and simultaneously reduce water and energy consumption in the dairy sector.In this overview, we propose innovative approaches based first on the improvement of performance of dairy powder processing by using several sensors for characterization and optimization of the processing conditions. Several examples of process optimization through improved understanding, including vacuum evaporation, lactose crystallization, homogenization and spray-drying are detailed. We then focus on alternative technologies such as the thin-film, spinning cone evaporator and extrusion-porosification technology. These alternative technologies could replace or supplement falling film vacuum evaporation and spray drying in the future to reduce energy costs and/or to produce dairy powders with improved functionality. The final aim of this overview is to propose an ideal plant to produce dairy powders of high value, quality and energy efficiency with a good environmental impact. Several examples will be set-out to illustrate the dairy powder factory of the future