The dairy industry has taken great interest in milk microfiltration due to its ability to selectively separate and focus on the bioactive components of milk. A research team at IIT Roorkee conducted a study that showed how fat globules can be separated from bovine milk in one step based on size using cross-flow microfiltration.

IIT Roorkee announced in a press release that Ayushi Kapoor, a PhD student and the first author of the research, has been awarded the International Travel Award by the Science and Engineering Research Board, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. She will be presenting her research paper orally at the upcoming Annual Conference of the Membrane Society Australasia in Perth, Australia in December. The research has been recently published in the Separation and Purification Technology journal, and a comprehensive Indian patent has been filed by the institute for the process.

One compound worth noting is the milk fat globules, which is a bioactive component with potential health benefits. However, it undergoes structural and functional damage, loss of membrane phospholipids, and requires longer processing time and higher recovery cost due to its current multi-step separation process. According to a media release from IIT Roorkee, the research team has created a one-step method for separating smaller milk fat globules from bovine milk based on their size, while maintaining their structural and nutritional properties.

We have created a one-step process in our research that works effectively at lower pressure and also preserves the structure of separated fat globules. The current methods used to separate milk fat globules involve 4-5 steps, resulting in a more time-consuming and expensive process. Additionally, the extra processing steps harm the milk fat globules, resulting in decreased nutritional properties. According to Ayushi Kapoor, PhD student at IIT Roorkee and first author of the research, the process we have developed separates raw milk directly without any pre-processing, saving time, energy, and money when implemented at the industrial level.