Around one-sixth of the milk processed by dairies worldwide is wasted – over 150 million tonnes a year. Canberra-based company PPB Technology has developed a new technology that could drastically reduce this amount of waste.

Dairies, which previously had to wait two to three days for the results of routine laboratory tests for proteases, can now carry out the tests on-site in just three minutes. Stephen Trowell, founder of PPB Technology: “We develop proteins, known as biosensors, that can measure with great precision. We can assess the quality of raw milk based on its protease content. Some products are more sensitive to protease, and their shelf life is affected more significantly than others. The most sensitive product is UHT milk.”

Trowell explained that a better understanding of protease levels enables dairies to use the milk for less sensitive products such as cheese or yoghurt, or to process it accordingly. Combined with the use of the technology to identify problematic enzymes in supply chains, this could prevent more than 70 million tonnes of milk from spoiling prematurely each year.