Effect of cream treatment on phospholipids and protein recovery in butter-making process

A simple approach is proposed to recover native protein and phospholipid fractions from butter-making process using equipments available in dairy-processing plant. A washing treatment was used to remove protein from the cream and increase the phospholipids purity in buttermilk. Cream from a first separation was diluted with milk ultrafitration permeate and separated a second time. A 10X dilution factor reduced protein concentration in the cream from 1.6 +/- 0.2 to 0.52 +/- 0.03%. As a result, the phospholipids to protein ratio in buttermilk increased from 53 +/- 10 to 172 +/- 7 mg g(-1). In butter-making process, an important portion of total phospholipids (similar to 26%) is retained in butter. Butter serum made from washed cream could then be used to produce phospholipid concentrates with phospholipids to protein ratio of 473 +/- 3 mg g(-1). Interestingly, the extracts from butter serum are characterised by a higher proportion of sphingomyelin compared with those from buttermilk.