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US 6,183,803 B2Granted
Method for processing milk
AssigneeBioSante Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
InventorsTulin Morcol, Steve J. D. Bell
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention relates to methods for separating casein from milk, and for separating from milk proteins that can be associated or entrained within casein micelles, by contacting the milk with a chelating agent to disrupt the casein micelles and reconstituting the micelles by introducing small insoluble inorganic particles.
Claims42
A method of processing a milk comprising casein micelles and whey proteins, comprising:
- contacting the milk with a chelating agent under conditions sufficient to cause the casein micelles to be wholly or partially deconstructed, forming a clarified milk serum comprising caseins and whey proteins, but reduced levels of intact casein micelles;
- contacting the clarified milk serum with insoluble divalent cation salts under conditions sufficient to cause at least some of the casein micelles to reform and precipitate, forming a solid phase containing reformed casein micelles and a liquid phase containing whey proteins, wherein substantially no casein or casein micelles are present in the liquid phase;
- separating the solid phase from the liquid phase.
A method of producing reformed casein micelles from milk, comprising:
- providing an aqueous solution comprising processed casein material having substantially no casein in micelle form,
- contacting said aqueous solution with insoluble divalent cation salts under conditions sufficient to cause at least some reformed casein micelles to be produced.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.