Ultrasound assisted processing of milk: Advances and challenges

High-intensity ultrasound (HIUS) is a green technology that has improved various processes in the food industry. HIUS leads to improved heat and mass transfer rates, providing a faster processing technique and limiting production costs by increasing process efficiency. In food processing, ultrasound is regarded as a promising emerging technology with the potential to speed up processes and produce high quality products. This article describes recent applications of power ultrasound for physical milk processing, mentions the advantage and disadvantages of this technology, evaluates the physical and chemical effects of HIUS on the modification of milk, and novel research areas leading to the promotion and solving the challenges ahead. It is concluded that HIUS is a useful tool for milk processing, because of its positive effects on the quality and retaining their initial nutritional properties and sensory characteristics. It can also be considered that the forthcoming research will lead to the improvement and industrialization of this technology. Practical Applications As a very important food item in the human diet, milk has very sensitive components that usually undergo undesirable changes during processing. Power ultrasound is an emerging green technology that has a great potential for application in dairy processing that can significantly reduce such unfavorable changes. It has been proven that ultrasound has an appropriate capability to accelerate processes, reduce energy consumption and increase productivity. This technology has been successfully used in pasteurization, homogenization, filtration, and drying of milk in laboratory scale. Ultrasound has a very high potential for industrialization in the dairy industry and draws a promising perspective for its conventional applications in the production of dairy products in the not-too-distant future.