Lactose, a natural carbohydrate abundant and inexpensive in mammalian milk, is a widely used sugar in the food industry. However, its high incidence of intolerance in a large part of the population limits its use. This widespread intolerance leads to global surpluses with few industrial applications and significant accumulation issues.
Cheese production, in particular, yields large volumes of lactose-rich whey. Despite its nutritional value, whey is often viewed as an environmental concern rather than a resource, requiring costly proper handling to prevent contamination. Recognizing these management and treatment challenges, the University of Santiago, Chile, has identified an opportunity to revalue this by-product.
Dr. Carlos Vera, an academic in the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology, is spearheading a Fondecyt Regular project that aims to convert whey’s lactose into high-value functional ingredients like prebiotics. This innovative approach promises to mitigate environmental impact while transforming a costly waste product into a valuable resource for the food and pharmaceutical industries, fostering a more efficient and sustainable circular economy model.
“For 15 years, our research group has focused on revaluing lactose, an industrial waste product primarily from cheese production,” explains Dr. Carlos Vera. “Globally, there’s a significant surplus with limited industrial uses, so our goal is to find better ways to use it.”
To achieve this, the project aims to develop an efficient and comprehensive process that transforms surplus lactose into epilactose, an ingredient with prebiotic potential. The goal is to optimize every stage, from enzymatic conversion using specialized enzymes to the separation and purification of the final product. To this end, the researchers will evaluate techniques such as selective crystallization and fermentation with beneficial microorganisms to obtain epilactose more viably and accessibly.
“Epilactose is a rare isomer of lactose with potential prebiotic effects,” Dr. Vera explains. “While it’s known to promote the growth of beneficial microorganisms like lactobacilli and bifidobacteria, its high production cost has limited research. Our goal is to generate enough to evaluate its benefits in later stages.”
A Technological Challenge
Global research on epilactose remains highly limited, primarily due to the challenges of synthesizing it via traditional chemical methods. With only about 90 scientific publications on its production, the field’s nascent exploration is evident.
Although the enzyme cellobiose 2-epimerase, capable of generating epilactose more efficiently, was discovered nearly a decade ago, industrial processes or projects dedicated to optimizing its production and purification remain absent. This presents a key challenge: not only producing epilactose but also effectively separating it from lactose—a technically complex and underexplored process.
“Epilactose is a carbohydrate rare in nature, so the challenge isn’t just producing it, but also purifying it,” he explains. “Generating it is one thing, but perhaps more important is effectively separating it from lactose—a technically complex and largely unresearched area that our project aims to tackle over the next four years.”.
Health Impact
Overcoming these challenges is not just a scientific feat; it is also a chance to create an ingredient with significant health benefits. A key advantage of using lactose-derived prebiotics is their potential to help reduce lactose intolerance.
Lactose intolerance develops as people gradually lose the ability to properly digest it. By promoting the growth of intestinal microorganisms that metabolize lactose and its derivatives, specific prebiotics could partially reduce this intolerance, making individuals less sensitive to its consumption.
This type of research opens new avenues for collaboration with industry. Dr. Vera notes a growing awareness in Chile regarding the importance of adding value to by-products. Already, some local companies and international universities have expressed interest in these lines of work.
“This project has allowed us to position ourselves very well at the regional and global level, generating collaborations with universities and researchers in Spain, Mexico, Italy, Argentina, and Brazil,” concludes the Usach academic. “This has allowed us to share knowledge, train human capital, and develop technologies that truly add value to our by-products and eventually implement them in our country.”