The resulting whey from cheese manufacture consists mainly of water and lactose, a sugar with little sweetening and fermentable power and low commercial value. Aiming at valorizing the whey and faced with the challenge to reduce and treat an industrial wastewater present at high volumes and composed of high organic load, several ways to enhance the commercial value lactose have been sought. Thanks to the functional and technological traits of lactose and to the biotechnological advances, several applications have been proposed either for direct use or for the production and application of chemical and enzymatic derivatives or by-products from microbiological processes. Nowadays, lactose has numerous potential applications in food, feed, nutraceutical, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry, an overview of which is given in this review. On the other hand, many compounds of high added value are produced from lactose, such as oligosaccharides with prebiotic properties, lactobionic acid with antioxidant properties, lactitol as sweetener with dietetic and prebiotic functions, and lactulose as prebiotic ingredient. Nevertheless, the implementation of industrial processes for whey collection and lactose recovery and valorization faces practical difficulties, particularly of logistical and financial investment nature. This communication aims at giving an overview with respect to the problems associated with the high volumes of whey produced in the dairy industry and some of the foremost technological routes for its commercial exploitation through the use of lactose and its derivatives. It also presents a set of considerations regarding the main bottlenecks to overcome towards the creation and implementation of integrated systems tailored for collecting and processing cheese whey in an efficient, sustainable and cost-effective approach.

奶酪生产中产生的乳清主要由水和乳糖组成，这是一种糖，甜味和发酵力很小，商业价值低。为了使乳清增值并面临减少和处理大量存在且由高有机负荷组成的工业废水的挑战，已经寻求了几种提高乳糖商业价值的方法。由于乳糖的功能和技术特性以及生物技术的进步，已经提出了几种应用，这些应用既可以直接使用，也可以用于微生物过程中的化学和酶促衍生物或副产物的生产和应用。如今，乳糖在食品，饲料，营养保健品，制药和化妆品行业具有许多潜在应用，本综述对此进行了概述。另一方面，乳糖可产生许多高附加值的化合物，例如具有益生元性质的寡糖，具有抗氧化性质的乳糖酸，具有营养和益生元功能的乳糖醇作为甜味剂，以及具有乳糖的益生元成分。然而，实施乳清收集，乳糖回收和增值的工业过程面临着实际困难，特别是后勤和财政投资性质。本交流旨在概述与乳制品行业生产的大量乳清有关的问题，以及通过使用乳糖及其衍生物进行商业开发的一些最重要的技术路线。