In the food industry, the application of hydrodynamic cavitation has gained popularity in various fields such as:
- non-invasive testing,
- homogenization,
- extraction,
- degassing,
- cutting of frozen or soft foods,
- anti-fouling,
- microbial destruction,
- etc.
Hydrodynamic cavitation has shown great potential in modifying the molecules that compose milk, improving the processing efficiency of milk and dairy products, food safety, microbial destruction, non-destructive analysis, cleaning of equipment surfaces and waste management.
One of the limitations of ultrasonic cavitation is that it is difficult to use in a continuous process with a high flow rate.
Hydrodynamic cavitation, on the other hand, shows an advantage in this case as it is easily applicable in a continuous process.
Although many applications have been identified, there are still many potential and untested applications: given the results obtained so far, there is a need to explore the application of hydrodynamic cavitation in the dairy industry.
Most of the research based on hydrodynamic cavitation has focused on dairy products such as milk, cream, cheese, yogurt and milk protein ingredients.
However, as the technology becomes more established in this sector, hydrodynamic cavitation may also be applied to other dairy products such as anhydrous milk fat and butter.
Cavitation can currently offer many benefits to the dairy industry, but with further studies and applications it is highly believed that it can provide a significant boost to the industry.
