Rheological properties of whey products dispersions

Rheological properties of commercial whey products (powdered wheys, demineralized powdered whey, whey protein concentrates and whey protein isolate) with wide range of protein content were determined. Influence of protein concentration in different whey protein dispersions was investigated. Powdered wheys dispersions showed shear thinning with n < 1 and shear thickening with n > 1 was observed virtually in all other samples. For powdered whey dispersions a strong dependency of consistency index on protein concentration was found. Fat and minerals were probably the constituents which highly influenced viscosity of whey products dispersions. Powdered wheys and 30% protein whey protein concentrate showed the highest protein concentration viscosity dependency. There was an increase in thixotropy with increased protein concentration and the highest values were observed for powdered wheys and whey protein concentrates with lower protein content-35.5 and 65.3%.