Despite extensive research on the topic, valorization of dairy by-products remains challenging. Cheese whey is of particular interest because it contains valuable proteins such as α-lactalbumin (α-LA) and β-lactoglobulin (β-LG). However, selective fractionation of these 2 proteins into pure fractions is complex because of their similar molecular weights. In this study, we proposed an innovative protein separation strategy based on coupling high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) with acidification of whey at pH 4.6. We investigated the effect of single-cycle HHP (600 MPa) for 5, 10, and 15 min and multiple-cycle HHP (1–3 cycles of 5 min at 600 MPa) on α-LA and β-LG fractionation from cheese whey at initial pH (control, pH 6.66) and acidified to pH 4.6. All pressurization conditions with acidified whey induced a drastic aggregation of β-LG compared with control whey. The highest degrees of purification (75 and 98%, respectively) and yields (95 and 88%, respectively) of α-LA and β-LG were obtained with the application of single-cycle HHP treatment of acidified whey at pH 4.6 at 600 MPa for 5 min. Our results showed the strong potential of using HHP as an innovative tool for the fractionation of valuable proteins such as α-LA from cheese whey.

尽管对该主题进行了广泛的研究，但乳制品副产品的增值仍然具有挑战性。奶酪乳清特别受关注，因为它包含有价值的蛋白质，例如α-乳白蛋白（α-LA）和β-乳球蛋白（β-LG）。但是，由于这两种蛋白质的分子量相似，因此将它们选择性地分离成纯净的部分非常复杂。在这项研究中，我们提出了一种创新的蛋白质分离策略，该策略基于高静水压（HHP）与pH 4.6的乳清酸化耦合。我们研究了单循环HHP（600 MPa）持续5、10和15分钟，以及多循环HHP（600兆帕下5分钟的1-3个循环，共5分钟）对干酪乳清中α-LA和β-LG分离的影响在初始pH（对照，pH 6.66）下酸化至pH 4.6。与对照乳清相比，所有使用酸化乳清的加压条件均导致β-LG急剧聚集。通过在600的pH 4.6下酸化乳清的单周期HHP处理，可获得最高的α-LA和β-LG纯化度（分别为75％和98％）和产率（分别为95％和88％）。 MPa 5分钟。我们的结果表明，将HHP用作从干酪乳清中分离有价值的蛋白质（例如α-LA）的创新工具具有强大的潜力。