Page 40 - Food&Drink Magazine August 2019

FOOD TECHNOLOGY
A Wholey new game for milk
The 155-year-old milk pasteurisation process is being challenged by a new patented technology from The Wholey Milk Co. Doris Prodanovic reports.
the technology and accepted that the process “may be used as an alternative treatment to pasteurisation for raw milk”.
“The actual site has not been confirmed yet but we are hoping to be up and running out of that pilot factory at the back end of 2020,” Hastings tells Food & Drink Business. “In terms of our commercial operations, the pilot factory will produce around 10 million litres of milk per year which will be manufactured into a range of products that is yet to be determined but could include; milk, cheeses, gelato, ice cream and speciality milks.”
SETTING SAIL
The technology is being hailed as a ‘game-changer’ for the global export market as it allows for milk to be shipped rather than flown to areas such as Japan, China and Malaysia. Hastings highlights that the Asian diet is moving from a grain rich to a protein rich diet, with the Naturo dairy offerings feeding directly into that shift.
“The key advantage is our shelf life, which means we can sea freight the product into broader Asia, including China or in fact anywhere in the world,” says Hastings. “There is also a greater portion of the younger generation (18-35) that have possibly been educated
human consumption. It is much closer to milk in its original state and is independently proven to be nutritionally superior,” Hastings says.
THE GREATER GOOD
Pasteurisation heats milk for at least 15 seconds to a minimum of 72 degrees Celcius to make it safe, says Hastings, as well as destroying some of the goodness in milk such as alkaline phosphatase activity, “an essential enzyme for liver function and bone development”. It also reduces Vitamin B2 and B12 levels.
In comparison, Hastings says his new technology can kill pathogens without relying on heat. It is also considering if it can be expanded beyond cow’s milk, and into camel, goat and sheep’s milk, as well as other dairy products.
“There are many products that would benefit from the use of milk that has not been pasteurised but they are currently not allowed to due to regulations, for example, cheese makers would love to use our milk,” Hastings tells F&DB.
“Similarly with products such as ice-cream, yoghurt and gelato that have issues with short shelf life of pasteurised milk, which limits their ability to expand to the world, our longer shelf life milk will be able
WITH a global dairy industry worth US$413 billion and Australia in the enviable position of having excess milk to export, The Wholey Milk Co. CEO Jeff Hastings saw an opportunity.
The result is a patented process that extends the shelf life of milk from 14 to 60 days. “Put simply, our technology kills more of the bugs and has a superior shelf life,” says Hastings.
“Our patented process is the only known method that kills Bacillus cereus, a common but unwanted spore forming bacterium in milk that produces toxins causing vomiting or diarrhoea. Our process makes our milk really safe.”
The Wholey Milk Co. is the latest venture by Hastings and a subsidiary of his Queensland- based food technology company, Naturo.
Prior to his milk technology, Hastings developed a 100 per cent natural avocado processing technology that produces a ‘no-browning’ avocado.
As an agricultural engineer with 30 years’ experience in global agribusiness, Hastings’ alternative milk treatment aims to be “nutritionally superior, retain its natural colour and taste, and
have a minimum 60-day refrigerated shelf life when compared to other forms of processed cow milk”, without additives or preservatives.
Naturo recently received $250,000 in like-for-like funding from the Queensland Government in support of the technology and is now in the final stages of planning its pilot plant, likely to be based in Tasmania. Dairy Food Safety Victoria has reviewed
“ The technology is being hailed as a ‘game-changer’ for the global export market as it allows for milk to be shipped rather than flown to other countries.”
offshore, who have travelled the world and are very familiar with the western diet and a key part of that is their appetite for protein including meats, milk and other dairy products.”
“Our milk tastes like milk straight from the cow. It is safer, better for you and lasts longer. The primary difference between our milk and pasteurised milk is the fact that we don’t ‘cook’ the milk to make it safe for
to feed into those products as well. So there is a range of dairy products that we will be working through that we think the qualities of our product will provide a unique opportunity for processors.”
Following the establishment of the pilot plant in 2020, The Wholey Milk Co. aims to further its global expansion of the technology as part of stage two of its commercial operations. ✷
40 | Food&Drink business | August 2019 | www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au