Industrial Research Limited

Fonterra Co-operative Group Limited

Callaghan Innovation

John Bertram Grey

Owen John Catchpole

Katrina Fletcher

Andrew Douglas MacKenzie

Mark Pritchard

Nicola Emma Durling

Kameron Gary Dunn

Stephen John Tallon

Andrew Fletcher

Andrew Douglas Mackenzie

A process for fractionating the constituents of a solution obtained by extracting plant or animal material with an aqueous-organic solvent where the aqueous-organic solvent is a mixture of water and a water-miscible organic solvent, generally including the steps of contacting the solution with a near-critical fluid to produce a raffinate phase containing high polarity constituents and water, and a near-critical fluid phase containing low to medium polarity constituents, separating the near-critical fluid phase from the raffinate phase, and recovering the low to medium polarity constituents from the near-critical fluid phase and the high polarity constituents from the raffinate phase.

Near-critical fluid extraction process

Processes for producing dairy products having lower levels of neutral lipids, and/or higher levels of polar lipids, by extraction using near critical carbon dioxide or dimethyl ether. These products may be used as ingredients in infant formulas. Infant formulas containing beta-serum are also claimed. 'Beta-serum' means an aqueous dairy ingredient separated from dairy streams containing greater than 60% fat which have been through phase inversion from an oil-in-water to a water-in-oil emulsion, such as the serum produced during the production of butter oil.

Beta-serum dairy products, neutral lipid-depleted and/or polar lipid-enriched dairy products, and processes for their production

A process for obtaining lipids containing highly unsaturated fatty acids from plant or animal material, including contacting the material with liquid dimethyl ether to give a dimethyl ether solution containing lipids and a residue of plant or animal material, separating the solution from the residue of plant or animal material, and recovering lipids from the solution.

Extraction of highly unsaturated lipids with liquid dimethyl ether

The present invention relates to processes for the treatment of dairy products and dairy process streams to produce lipids and substantially defatted protein streams. More specifically it relates to the use of near critical fluid extraction techniques to extract lipids from liquid dairy products and dairy process streams. Preferred solvents for use in the described near critical extraction techniques are ether based solvents that are partially miscible with water. A particularly preferred solvent for use in the invention is dimethyl ether.

Extraction of compounds from dairy products

A process for extracting a wide range of lipophilic compounds from urea-containing solutions is described. The process utilises a near-critical fluid as the extraction solvent. The process is particularly applicable to the extraction of polyunsaturated fatty acids from the filtrate obtained upon urea fractionation, as employed in the processing of fish and other oils. In contrast to known processes, the lipophilic compounds may be extracted without the use of non-food grade solvents, and are suitable for pharmaceutical and cosmetic use.

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Wellington, New Zealand

John Bertram Grey