dairy prices for whey manufacturing?

lightspeed

Hi

Apologies if this is wrong place to post but i was not sure were else would be more suitable.

I have been trying to gain an understanding of the cost of manufacturing whey protein and i stumbled upon a post of yours regarding the above.

Firstly, i have read that 1 litre of milk provides approximately 10% cheese and 90% liquid raw whey.

I also read that it takes 720 pounds of liquid whey to make 5 pounds of whey protein powder.

So 720 pounds is roughly 327 litres of milk for just 5lbs. Lets say a litre of milk here is around €0.30 a litre. I understand, if a company was to maintain its own dairy farm, costs per litre may be less but based on other posts ive seen here im guessing it would still come in around €0.20 per litre.


So 327*110%*0.2= €71.94 per 5lb of powder
as 5 lbs = 2.26 kg, €71.94/2.26 = €31.83 to produce 1kg Whey powder.

Given that if seen unflavoured whey sold for as little as €10.50 when bought in 5kg quantity, I can only assume that the large manufacturing plants making this whey must be buying in bulk and receiving milk at a much lower cost per litre.

My knowledge of dairy manufacturing is quite limited but I had thought prices were semi fixed, ie i know that price per litre fluctuates but i didnt think price per litre could fall with bulk purchase.

Is this a fair assumption to make?

kowtow

lightspeed wrote:

My knowledge of dairy manufacturing is quite limited but I had thought prices were semi fixed, ie i know that price per litre fluctuates but i didnt think price per litre could fall with bulk purchase.

lightspeed wrote:

Is this a fair assumption to make?

No, it's a bit more complex than that.. not least because the 10% you have already removed from the milk is worth ... let's say at a very rough guess.. 40 cents.

Have no way of knowing if your 720 lbs conversion is realistic, and it is not the case that a larger or captive dairy farm is likely to produce milk cheaper - if anything a corporate entity would be significantly more expensive than irish family farm production for a whole host of complex reasons which I won't bore you with.

lightspeed

kowtow wrote: »

No, it's a bit more complex than that.. not least because the 10% you have already removed from the milk is worth ... let's say at a very rough guess.. 40 cents.

Have no way of knowing if your 720 lbs conversion is realistic, and it is not the case that a larger or captive dairy farm is likely to produce milk cheaper - if anything a corporate entity would be significantly more expensive than irish family farm production for a whole host of complex reasons which I won't bore you with.

Thanks im interested to learn more about dairy manufacturing in general so its good to hear things in an understandable manner.

Im not 100% on the metrics ive cited myself but thats what ive read stated on my protein's US website.

"Fact: 720 pounds of the raw liquid is required to produce one 5 lb bag of whey."

So to clarify can a company purchasing in very large bulk amounts of milk reduce the cost per litre? Although i can see how that would explain it as even manufacturing the milk internally the cost would be such that it would still not appear to be economically viable to produce whey powder.

(Just above step 7 at the below link)

http://us.myprotein.com/thezone/supplements/how-is-whey-protein-made/

I also queried this topic on another bodybuilding forum and someone posted video from BPI who make whey powder supplements. In that video they mention they exact same figure of 720 pounds to produce 5 lbs of powder.

J.O. Farmer

Whey is a byproduct of cheese making. It wouldn't be economically viable to buy/ produce milk with the primary intention of producing whey protein.
In fact the sheer volumes involved and the value of whey powder would suggest that liquid whey is worth little or nothing. Most of the value is in the cheese making.

Water John

The production of cheese produces whey as a byproduct. This was fed to pigs in the past. Hence the syenergy eg in Mitchelstown. Cheese making and pig processing. Other than as a pig feed it had little market value.

The contrary is now the case. The cheese is almost produced in order to create the whey.
The processed whey adds to its value, eg demineralizing it for baby formula.

ganmo

The whey in those protein drinks is goes through multiple processing stages.
Whey
Whey protein concentrate(35 and 80 % protein)
Demineralised whey

Each has its own standard spec and world prices are available. Production stage efficiencies would differ plant by plant

kowtow

ganmo wrote:

Each has its own standard spec and world prices are available. Production stage efficiencies would differ plant by plant

ganmo wrote:

The whey in those protein drinks is goes through multiple processing stages. Whey Whey protein concentrate(35 and 80 % protein) Demineralised whey

Water John wrote:

The contrary is now the case. The cheese is almost produced in order to create the whey. The processed whey adds to its value, eg demineralizing it for baby formula.

Ah it would almost make you spit your breakfast out.

Milk
Cream
Cheese

Feed pigs with the whey and if it's sweet make a decent ricotta out of it.

If you want more muscles find an old lady and carry her shopping for her.

lightspeed

Thanks guys after doing some more research, it is clear now that it its correct to say generally its not economically viable to purchase milk for only whey production.

The big names like Glanbia for example obviously being one of the biggest cheese manufacturers are able to utilise the whey they use to make it profitable as they essentially using a by product that they would only be paying out to discard otherwise.

lightspeed

ganmo wrote: »

The whey in those protein drinks is goes through multiple processing stages.
Whey
Whey protein concentrate(35 and 80 % protein)
Demineralised whey

Each has its own standard spec and world prices are available. Production stage efficiencies would differ plant by plant

Just on the topic of demineralised whey, what exactly is this?

Is that the whey that is used for baby formulas and is it around 35%?

I've seen demineralised whey 90% for sale so not sure how this differs from whey isolate which is usually advertised as 90% protein.

Water John

Whey is the general raw byproduct, processed further to make a whole range of other specialist products.

Because breast milk has a different formulation, the minerals are stripped out of the whey prior to drying. Drying is in two stages, firstly on fluid beds, secondly in a cone dryer.

There was an AMA on here a couple of weeks ago on Infant Formula, in the Newborn and Toddler Forum, which you should find interesting.

I suggest you also download from GEA, who make these dryers, their handbook. Its somewhere on their website. Sorry haven't the link.