Lucile Tercinier

Citation

Thesis Title
Study of the interactions between milk proteins and hydroxyapatite particles

Read article at Massey Research Online:

Calcium fortification is a growing trend in the food industry, especially for milk and dairy products, to produce products with benefits for bone health. Calcium is often added to milks that are then heat-treated at ultra-high temperature to ensure sterility and extend product shelf-life. However, calcium fortification of heat-treated milks is a challenge as adding calcium often destabilises the product, causing protein aggregation and gelation during processing and shelf-life. Ms Tercinier''sresearch aimed at characterising the interactions between added calcium and proteins in milk in order to understand instability mechanisms and find ways to design calcium-fortified milks with improved stability. Her research showed that some calcium ingredients added to milk previously believed to be inert do affect the stability of the milk by dissociating the casein micelles and causing crystal growth. Her findings are of interest to the New Zealand dairy industry for new product development.

Supervisors
Professor Aiqian Ye
Ms Anne Singh
Distinguished Professor Harjinder Singh