Whey to Go: Whey Protein Concentrate: A New Zealand Success Story

by John MacGibbon

In the early 1970s, Britain was about to join the EEC and New Zealand's dairy industry was desperate for new markets and new products. They were found, partly thanks to a group of talented young technologists, scientists and marketers, a multi-national beverage company and a transformational new technology called ultrafiltration.

At the time, casein products were seen as an important part of the diversification push, But there was a problem: how to deal with the potentially polluting whey byproduct from large new casein plants?

One answer came through ultrafiltration, a technique that enabled the production of whey protein concentrates. They could be tailored as specialised food ingredients and were so valuable that processing highly dilute whey became profitable. These concentrates, along with other whey products, are now an established industry and almost no whey is wasted. It is New Zealand's biggest waste to riches story.

Whey to Go is the story of the early decades of development, written by several of the pioneers: Ken Kirkpatrick, Kevin Marshall, Dave Woodhams, Mike Matthews, Peter Hobman, Lee Huffman, Jim Harper, Robin Fenwick, Arthur Wilson.

264 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014