Whey Ingredients
Quick, think of the word ‘fair.’
What image came to mind? A towheaded tot? Your reasonable boss? The midway at a carnival?
English is filled with words that are spelled alike or sound alike but have different meanings. Whey is one of those words although the two definitions for whey are fairly connected. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist!)
Whey is one of the two types of protein found in the milk of all animals. The second protein is called casein. Cow’s milk has a proportion of whey to casein that differs from human milk. Therefore, manufacturers usually add whey ingredients to make the whey to casein ratio of their formulas more like human milk.
Whey is also the name of the fluid by-product of cheesemaking. Separating the casein from the fluid milk is done using cultures or acid (e.g. lemon juice). Casein clumps together as curds and the smaller whey proteins stay put in the fluid. Bafflingly, whey is the eponymous name for the fluid left over at this stage.
Whey inside of whey. Feels like stepping in front an infinity mirror in a Fun House!
Fluid whey is also called sweet whey, because it tastes sweet. When casein is separated from milk, more than whey proteins are left behind in the fluid; lactose, minerals (e.g. calcium) and a small amount of fat also remain. Lactose is a carbohydrate, a form of natural sugar that has a slightly sweet taste. With the casein gone, fluid whey has more lactose in each drop than milk making it taste pleasantly sweet.
Many Whey Ingredients
Most of us first heard about whey as children, thanks to Mother Goose:
Little Miss Muffet
Sat on a tuffet,
Eating her curds and whey;
Along came a spider,
Who sat down beside her,
And frightened Miss Muffet away.
While you may, like Miss Muffet, be afraid of spiders don’t let the formula labeling scare you. The Ingredient Interpreter will guide you through all the many forms of whey found in infant formula. All these whey ingredients find their start in fluid whey, the by-product of cheesemaking:
whey protein concentrate (from milk, enzymatically hydrolyzed, reduced in minerals)
enzymatically hydrolyzed whey protein isolate (from cow's milk)
partially hydrolyzed whey (also called whey protein hydrolysate)