Astringency reduction in red wine by whey proteins

PAULA JAUREGI; JUMOKE B. OLATUJOYE; IGNACIO CABEZUDO; RICHARD A. FRAZIER; MICHAEL.H. GORDON

FOOD CHEMISTRY

ELSEVIER SCI LTD

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2016 vol. 199 p. 547 - 555

0308-8146

Whey is a by-product of cheese manufacturing and therefore investigating new applications of wheyproteins will contribute towards the valorisation of whey and hence wastereduction.This study shows for the first time a detailed comparison of the effectiveness of gelatin andb-lactoglobulin(b-Lg) as fining agents.  Gelatin was more reactive than whey proteinsto tannic acid as shown by both the astringency method (with ovalbumin as aprecipitant) and the tannins determination method (with ME as a precipitant).The two proteins showed similar selectivity for polyphenols but b-Lg did notremove as much catechin.The fining agent wasremoved completely or to a trace levelafter centrifugation followed byfiltration which minimises its potential allergenicity. In addition, improvedunderstanding of protein-tannin interactions was obtained by fluorescence, sizemeasurement and isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC).Overal this studydemonstrates that whey proteins have the potential of reducing astringency inred wine and can find a place in enology.