Creamy taste — without the fat

Graduate students arrive in Pullman for all sorts of reasons, but Seung-Yong Lim arrived looking for a better tasting lowfat ice cream.

“When I worked at Baskin Robbins, lowfat ice cream was so bad; it was so sticky,” said Lim, a graduate student in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition. Before coming to WSU, Lim worked in quality assurance — testing and tasting ice cream — at a factory outside of Seoul, Korea.

“People want to eat lowfat ice cream,” he said, “but it tastes not good.” In fact, lowfat ice cream tasted so bad, he said, that he started looking on the Internet to see if he could find anyone working on the problem. And that’s when he found Stephanie Clark, an associate professor in WSU’s food science and human nutrition program.



Using leftovers

Clark’s research focuses on microbiology, chemistry and processing of dairy products. But the research that brought Lim to Pullman is Clark’s work to improve the flavor-binding and functional properties of whey proteins.

While Lim’s research with Clark could improve consumer satisfaction with lowfat ice cream, another benefit is that it would reduce the amount of whey discarded during the cheese-making process at the WSU Creamery.

“We’re trying to reduce the amount of whey going down the drain,” Clark said, “because when you make cheese, 10 percent of the milk goes to cheese, and 90 percent is whey, which our creamery presently discards.”

Because whey is inexpensive and has good nutritional value, scientists have been drying it and adding it to certain food products for years, Clark said, but her lab is working to expand its functional properties in ice cream and other applications.



Pressure aids texture

Other students in Clark’s lab are investigating the flavor-binding properties of whey, but Lim’s research involves figuring out how to modify it so that it helps improve the texture and body of lowfat ice cream. Fresh whey has a similar consistency to fat, Lim said, but when it is heated above pasteurization temperatures, as it must be for spray drying, it loses its fat-like consistency.

At this year’s Academic Showcase of research excellence, Lim presented a poster titled “High Hydrostatic Pressure Modification of Whey Protein Concentrate for Improved Body and Texture of Lowfat Ice Cream.” According to Lim, his research shows that subjecting fresh whey protein concentrate to a high hydrostatic pressure treatment significantly improves the way whey protein functions in ice cream, creating a better lowfat dessert.

“I make lowfat ice cream using this whey,” he said. “It improves the body and the texture.” Although his research only has been applied at the laboratory level, participants in blind taste tests have been able to taste the difference.

His next project, he said, will be adding high-pressure-treated whey to reduced-fat cream to improve how it whips up.