What is the difference between whey, milk and dairy drink?

The repercussion on social networks of a photo of a supermarket selling whey attracted the attention of Procon, which sees the possibility of misleading advertising, given the similarity between the advertised product and traditional milk.

Nutritionist Ana Cláudia Mazzonetto explains that whey is a by-product of milk processing. “When the food industry uses milk to prepare, for example, cheeses, what is left over from this cheese-making process is called a by-product, which is whey.”

Ana Carolina Fernandes, nutritionist and professor at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), details that whey is the liquid part that is left over when coagulation takes place to make cheese, which concentrates the most solid part of the milk, such as protein and fat.

Dairy drink is a generic term for drinks based on milk, but which can have other components, such as whey or thickeners. A yogurt that uses whey, for example, becomes a dairy drink.

Fernandes says that for many years, whey was a waste. “It only started to be used, reused for food, because this residue was causing negative environmental impacts. lo and one of the applications is to make dairy cheaper.”

In a note, Quatá Alimentos also states that “it is necessary to demystify the view that whey is just a waste of the food industry, as it is a component with nutritional benefits”.

The company also says that whey is known as Whey, and is “a liquid composed of proteins, minerals, fats, lactose and water, normally obtained from cheese production”, with highly digestible proteins of high biological value.

But Fernandes warns: “People can confuse Whey with Whey Protein. Whey is whey, Whey Protein, which athletes take, is isolated whey protein. In whey, it is diluted and not concentrated. So it’s not the same amount, it starts there.”

Nutritionist Ana Cláudia Mazzonetto explains that whey is a by-product of milk processing. “When the food industry uses milk to prepare, for example, cheeses, what is left over from this cheese-making process is called a by-product, which is whey.”

Ana Carolina Fernandes, nutritionist and professor at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), details that whey is the liquid part that is left over when coagulation takes place to make cheese, which concentrates the most solid part of the milk, such as protein and fat.

Dairy drink is a generic term for drinks based on milk, but which can have other components, such as whey or thickeners. A yogurt that uses whey, for example, becomes a dairy drink.

There are nutritional differences between the two products, so it is not possible to replace milk with whey. “As whey is a by-product, compared to milk it ends up having less protein, less total fat and less calcium,” says Mazzonetto.

“What we have seen is the substitution of milk for whey and the maintenance of the same packaging, for example. With an increasing variety of products in supermarkets, it is important for civil society to demand increasingly clear food labeling. and understandable. And, obviously, that the government works to guarantee everyone the right to adequate and healthy food”, says the nutritionist.

“The main question of discussion is why we’ve reached a point where our money is only able to pay for whey, not whole milk.”

The price of whey shown in the image, R$4.49, also drew attention: it is much lower than the value of a liter of milk on the shelves — in the Sonda chain, for example, it is in the range of R$7.

Inflation data released this Friday (8) by the IBGE show that the price of milk soared 41.8% from January to June this year