VALORIZING OF LACTOSE BY ENZYMATIC CONVERSIONS TO COMPOUNDS WITH APPLICATION IN THE FOOD AND NON-FOOD INDUSTRIES

Información del proyecto

Identificador del acuerdo de subvención: FAIR961048

Proyecto cerrado

Fecha de inicio 1 Noviembre 1996

Fecha de finalización 31 Octubre 1999

Financiado con arreglo a

• Specific research, technological development and demonstration programme in the field of agriculture and fisheries (including agro-industry, food technologies, forestry, aquaculture and rural development), 1994-1998

Coste total

€ 1 803 053,00

Aportación de la UE

€ 1 564 053,00

Coordinado por

UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE
Austria

Objetivo

One of the most significant problems with regard to economics and environmental impact faced by the dairy industries is the disposal of lactose in whey and whey permeates. Lactose is a low value sugar accounting for up to 75% of the total dry material in whey and accumulates in annual quantities of approximately 1.2 million tons worldwide without many profitable routes for its direct utilisation being available. Lactose itself has a very weak marketing potential due to several reasons with lactose intolerance of the consumers being probably the most important. As a consequence there is a clear need for research to develop uses for lactose including conversion processes to more valuable products than the parent compound. These processes in turn could serve as the basis for new industries and will improve the EU competitiveness in the versatile area of lactose-derived products. The present project is a highly multidisciplinary approach to enzymatic lactose conversion processes with definite industrial potential and therefore calls for a consortium of European dimension. The project will focus on three major objectives. First, the project is aimed at improving existing chemical or biotechnological routes to lactose-derived products in terms of productivities and process economy. Integrated activities with regard to new biocatalyst including the tailoring of enzyme properties by protein engineering and the optimization of the corresponding reaction engineering employing high-productive combination processes of enzyme catalysis and membrane technology will lead to technical applications with a high degree of probability. Lactose hydrolysis to yield a mixture of glucose and galactose, which is more suitable for food applications than lactose, and classic primary conversions of lactose will be targeted. The products of the latter are lactitol, a low cariogenic sweetener, lactobionic acid, a compound known useful in medicine but also in food products due to its sweetsour taste, and lactulose, a bifidogenic component. The enzymatic approach to these products is characterized by two aspects of novelty: the use of coenzyme dependent biocatalysts for redox processes of lactose conversion and the emerging unit operation of charged nanofiltration membrane technology concerning coenzyme retention .
Tasks within the process development will include the preparation of suitable enzymes in sufficient quantities, optimization of discontinuous reactions and transfer to continuous mode of operation upstream processing of lactose with regard to a required substrate quality, and downstream processing of products mainly by membrane techniques. A second major goal of the project is to prepare new products from lactose while exploiting the entire range of synthetic potential of the
biocatalysts such as activity or specificity-tuned glycosidases, esterases and others. Employing the respective enzymes under non natural conditions like in organic solvents, a number of interesting compounds such as polymers oligosaccharides or glycosides will be made. The novelty aspects within these tasks include the optimization of reaction conditions and routes to completely new products with expected applications in food but also non food industries such as ten side
manufacture. As a third goal the possible and improved applications of the products prepared in the project will be targeted and special reference will be given ta assess the effect of these products on the growth promotion of probiotic organisms, which are known to have beneficial effects in the human intestine. As a result of these studies the most promising lactose-derived compounds will be selected for the
development of new functional food products.

Ámbito científico (EuroSciVoc)

• ciencias agrícolas › ciencias animales y lácteas › lácteos
• ciencias sociales › geografía social y económica › transporte › planificación de transportes
• ingeniería y tecnología › ingeniería química › tecnologías de separación
• ciencias naturales › ciencias químicas › catálisis › biocatálisis
• ciencias naturales › ciencias biológicas › bioquímica › biomoléculas › proteínas › enzima

Programa(s)

• FP4-FAIR - Specific research, technological development and demonstration programme in the field of agriculture and fisheries (including agro-industry, food technologies, forestry, aquaculture and rural development), 1994-1998

Tema(s)

• 2.2 - Bioprocessing

Convocatoria de propuestas

Datos no disponibles

Régimen de financiación

CSC - Cost-sharing contracts

Coordinador

UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE

• Aportación de la UE: Sin datos
• Dirección: PETER-JORDAN-STRASSE, 82 ; 1190 VIENNA ; Austria
• Coste total: Sin datos

Participantes (3)

Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR)

Italia

• Aportación de la UE: Sin datos
• Dirección: Via Marconi 10 ; 80125 Napoli
• Coste total: Sin datos

TECHNICAL RESEARCH CENTRE OF FINLAND

Finlandia

• Aportación de la UE: Sin datos
• Dirección: TIETOTIE, 2 - P.O. BOX 1501 ; 02044 ESPOO
• Coste total: Sin datos

WAGENINGEN AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY

Países Bajos

• Aportación de la UE: Sin datos
• Dirección: HESSELINK VAN SUCHTELENWEG, 4 - P.O. BOX 9101 ; 6703 CT WAGENINGEN
• Coste total: Sin datos