What Is Whey Protein? How Is Whey Protein Made?

Whey protein is derived from sweet dairy whey, a by-product of the cheese and dairy food industry. Not so long ago, whey was considered a useless waste-product and was disposed of -- in rural Ontario, Canada, where I grew up, and where there was a cheese factory on every corner, it was spread on the roads in the summer to keep the dust down (no kidding!). Of course, this hasn't been done now for years -- but for the longest time whey was dumped -- in rivers, streams, on roads, and even in the ocean.

No surprisingly, this environmental hazard alerted governments, and dairy producers were forced to discontinue this practice. It also forced them to take a closer look at what they were throwing out. Although whey in its raw state is a pretty disgusting concoction, containing mostly lactose (milk sugar), fat, and ash (minerals), it's protein profile alerted manufacturers to a potential income source, and thus the first primitive whey protein powders were born.

Nonetheless, these first whey protein powders wouldn't have impressed you or I, as they contained a measly 10-15% protein, and tasted pretty awful. Things progressed when French researchers developed a filtering process (called "ultra filtration"), which was more effective at separating the protein from the lactose and the ash, increasing the protein content of these powders to as much as 70%. Over time, the efficiency of the ultra filtration process improved to the point that the protein content of such powders increased to around 80 percent.

The next breakthrough in whey filtration came about in the form of the "ion-exchange" process, in which protein is isolated from the raw whey by the merit of positive and negative charges. By taking the ion-extracted protein and processing it through the "ultra filtration" process, protein powders where able reach 90% purity (i.e. minimal amounts of fat, ash, and lactose remaining in the final product).

Not all proteins are ion-exchanged, of course. The best whey proteins are created by a blend of the ultra filtration process and the newer micro and nano filtration processes. This involves processing the protein garnered from the ultra filtration process through a series of ceramic filters with tiny (read "microscopic") holes. Whey protein formulated in this manner is slightly purer than ion-exchanged protein (generally averaging about 90-94% purity). Best of all, it tends to deliver a protein with all its critical fractions and sub-fractions intact (more on the importance of this in the following articles), and a greater percentage of branch-chain amino acids.