Politiom

USE OF POLLUTION: THE CASE OF SERUM

Serum, liquid residue from the manufacture of cheese and casein, is a major food proteins reserves still remaining outside the canals human consumption.However, it is wasting a large proportion of the total supply of serum. Traditionally, whey was considered as an undesirable element, at most, of little interest and, in the worst case, which is expensive todispose of it. The most common practice was simply pouring it into water courses, which is very detrimental from the point of view. It is estimated that a cheese factory produces 250 000 liters ofwhey per day and can pollute as much water as a city of 50 000. A less damaging practice was to give it as pasture for calves or pigs to supplement their normal diet. When the cheese industry developed,it became clear that these traditional solutions are not sufficient to address the problem of removing the whey. Anti-pollution regulations that were developed were progressively implemented incountries where production is the most abundant serum, forcing manufacturers to produce cheese whey or install their own disposal facilities, which negatively affected yields per unit. As the first of thetwo possibilities was the lesser of two evils, the industry worked to develop its facilities, especially for drying, and try to find new uses for whey. The production of whey powder, mainly used asfeed, was the most economical solution and, indeed, this form of industry has developed considerably in recent decades. At the same time, they started using the serum for human consumption, as aningredient in all range of products, especially beverages, first, the Swiss Rivella, other fruit flavored beverages of high nutritional and even "champagne serum "and other soft drinks are producedcommercially in some countries of Eastern Europe.

While pouring the serum into the waterways remains a serious problem in some countries, this practice has greatly reduced especially in industrialized...