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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania » Eastern Regional Research Center » Dairy and Functional Foods Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #418995
Research Project: Reclaiming Value from Coproducts of Dairy Food Manufacture

Location: Dairy and Functional Foods Research

Title: Separation of butterfat from waste ice cream using enzymatic digestion and disc bowl centrifugation

Author
item Plumier, Benjamin
item LIANG, CHEN - Oak Ridge Institute For Science And Education (ORISE)
item LEE, CHANGHOON - Oak Ridge Institute For Science And Education (ORISE)
item Garcia, Rafael

Submitted to: International Dairy Journal
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/9/2026
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Ice cream waste results in a loss of product, including valuable components such as butterfat. Disk bowl centrifuges are a common technology used to reduce fat in whole milk but they have never been used with ice cream. A disk bowl centrifuge was used to remove fat from ice cream following enzymatic digestion. The fat recovered with this food-grade process can be used as a valuable food ingredient.

Technical Abstract: Wasted ice cream products contain many valuable food components, most notably butterfat which has potential for recovery. Disk bowl centrifugation, widely used in milk processing, has not been previously used with ice cream. In comparison to milk, ice cream has larger variations in fat content, smaller fat globule sizes, and the presence of additives and emulsifiers. An Armfield FT15 lab scale disk bowl centrifuge was used to separate samples of five ice creams containing 1.25 kg melted ice cream at temperatures ranging from 30C to 80C, while incorporating enzymatic digestion from 4 enzymes to encourage fat separation. Results showed that fat capture from ice cream is aided by enzymatic digestion. Rennet was the most effective enzyme tested. Although some varieties performed better without processing compared to 1h incubation, all ice creams benefited from processing after 4h of incubation, with at least 40% fat (weight basis) and high total recovery.