A Study on Mineral Content of Whey Obtained From Turkish Strained Yogurt

Abstract

The macro (Ca, Mg, K, Na, P) and micro (Zn, Fe, Mn, Cu) mineral content of whey obtained from traditional and industrial yogurt during the strained yogurt production were determined by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectrometer (ICP-OES). In the production of strained yogurt, a traditional method has been used, i.e. straining with a special cloth bag. It was determined that the industrial yogurt whey exhibited higher mineral content in comparison to traditional yogurt whey except for Fe content. The average highest mineral content was determined to be 2039.21 mg/L in Ca element of industrial yogurt whey and the lowest was 0.21 mg/L in Mn element of traditional yogurt whey. These results suggest that whey as biological waste has high potential to be valuable mineral content for new products or an ideal alternative compound.