DISCOVERY IN ITALY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 December 1939, Page 3

DISCOVERY IN ITALY

FOLLOWED UP BY AMERICA. MAKING OF CASEIN FIBRE. With the announcement a few years ago that casein was being used in Italy to make a wool-like fibre, American bureau scientists started to unravel the secret process. They have now applied for public service patents for making casein fibre. No commercial production has yet begun in the United States, but it was estimated that Italy would produce 20 million pounds in 1938. Whether or not skim milk would be more profitable if made into fibre than is used as stock feed depends on economic conditions. One American commercial plant is now using the method developed by the bureau to make lactic acid by fermenting the milk sugar of the whey from casein manufacture. This plant has found a market for all its lactic acid, but more would be made if new uses were found. Recently the bureau has found it possible to make a resin from lactic acid, which promises to be useful in making varnishes and lacquers that are resistant to alcohol and that adhere to metals. Work is now under way also to devise a method of converting lactic acid into acrylic acid for use in making plastic glass. Another notable achievement in the utilisation of casein whey is the bureau’s new process for recovering the milk sugar somewhat more cheaply than formerly. This reduction in cost is made possible bj 7 the value of the two byproducts of the process, the soluble albumin and a residue rich in flavins. Soluble albumin is useful in infant foods and the flavin product is valuable because of the demand for concentrated forms of this compound by feed manufacturers. Laboratory experiments have demonstrated the possibility of using large quantities of sweet whey in soups, fruit whips and candies. A process has been perfected by which the smaller cheese factories can concentrate and preserve whey for sale to food manufacturers and confectioners.