High-Value Dairy-Based Ingredients: From Separation and Purification Innovations to Functional Product Development

Dear Colleagues,

The global dairy sector is undergoing a strategic transformation from basic nutrition to deep processing for health and wellness. At the heart of this shift lie high-value dairy-based ingredients, such as lactoferrin, osteopontin, α-lactalbumin, peptides, oligosaccharides, milk fat globule membrane (MFGM), milk exosomes, and functional lipids, that are increasingly recognized as key enablers of precision nutrition, medical foods, and clean-label functional products. Efficient, scalable, and sustainable preparation of these ingredients, coupled with an in-depth understanding of their structure–function relationships, has become a research priority for both academia and industry.

This Special Issue, "High-Value Dairy-Based Ingredients: From Separation and Purification Innovations to Functional Product Development", aims to compile cutting-edge original research and comprehensive review articles that address the entire innovation chain, from novel separation and purification technologies to the design, characterization, and application of functional dairy products. We particularly welcome interdisciplinary contributions that bridge dairy chemistry, bioprocess engineering, food material science, and human nutrition.

Topics of interest for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Novel separation and purification technologies for dairy bioactive ingredients (e.g., membrane filtration, chromatography, supercritical fluid extraction, aqueous two-phase systems).
• Enzymatic hydrolysis and bioconversion for producing bioactive peptides, oligosaccharides, and modified milk proteins.
• Precision fermentation and cell factory approaches for producing high-value dairy proteins and functional components.
• Structural characterization and bioactivity assessment of purified dairy ingredients (lactoferrin, osteopontin, α-lactalbumin, MFGM, milk exosomes, etc.)
• Encapsulation and delivery systems for protecting and targeting dairy bioactive compounds.
• High-value dairy ingredients in specialized nutrition: infant formula, foods for special medical purposes, sports nutrition, and healthy aging products.
• Functional dairy product development: from concept and formulation to shelf-life and sensory evaluation.
• Sustainability and scale-up challenges in the commercial production of high-value dairy ingredients.
• Emerging technologies (non-thermal processing, 3D food printing, AI-driven process optimization) applied to high-value dairy streams.

We sincerely invite you to contribute your latest findings and perspectives to this Special Issue. By bringing together multidisciplinary expertise, we hope to provide a comprehensive overview of the state of the art and inspire further innovations in the high-value utilization of milk’s unique biological resources.

Dr. Yi Wang
Dr. Pengjie Wang
Dr. Chong Chen
Guest Editors

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