Milk protein analysis

After a short description of bovine milk proteins, the various methods of current or potential use for detecting and determining them in dairy products are reviewed. This includes, first, the determination of total protein from nitrogen analysis, dye-binding capacity, infra-red spectrometry and amino acid analysis. The methods that allow determination of sorne milk protein fractions of interest (whole casein, whey proteins, ~-Iactoglobulin) are then given. They include the Aschaffenburg-Rowland procedure, dye-binding and infra-red methodologies. A description of the various methods (electrophoresis, column chromatography, immunochemical or enzymatic tests), that can be used for detecting and individually quantitating the various caseins and whey proteins is presented. Finally, sorne applications of various analytical procedures to the analysis of different classes of dairy products are given.