About a sixth of the world’s milk is wasted, over 150 million tonnes every year, but a Canberra company has come up with new technology that could drastically reduce that.
Their technology allows dairy companies, which previously had to wait two to three days to receive routine laboratory test results back, to now carry out the tests on site in just three minutes.
PPB Technology founder Stephen Trowell says the technology measures raw milk’s sensitivity to an enzyme that can spoil the finished product. (ABC News: Simon Beardsell)
“We engineer proteins, they’re called biosensors, they can measure things very, very accurately,” PPB Technology founder Stephen Trowell said.
“We can measure the quality of raw milk in terms of its protease, an enzyme that can spoil the finished products.
“Some products are more sensitive to the protease, and their shelf life is more affected by it than others.
“The most sensitive product is long life or UHT milk.”
Mr Trowell said having greater awareness of protease levels allowed dairy companies to use the milk for less sensitive products such as cheese or yoghurt or give it appropriate treatment to ensure it is not wasted.
Identifying milk with high protease levels allows dairy companies to use it for less sensitive products like yoghurt and cheese. (ABC News)
He said combined with the technology’s use to find and fix what causes problematic enzymes in supply chains it could prevent more than 70 million tonnes of milk being wasted each year.
“We can probably save a third of the milk to a half of the milk that’s going to waste at the moment,”
Mr Trowell said.
Tech also used to detect explosive vapours, wine aromas
Mr Trowell worked at the CSIRO for 30 years during which he led the Cybernose project, technology that was used for wine testing and detecting explosives.
“The original idea was to couple biological receptors, sensing proteins, to a machine so that you could help winemakers objectively assess some of the parameters of wine,” Mr Trowell said.
“We took on that challenge, but we realised that actually the commercial demand for that wasn’t very high — but there was a demand, not necessarily commercial, but a strategic imperative to do that for the explosive detection.”
Cybertongue technology measures trace contaminants and enzyme activities in food and beverages. (Supplied: Stephen Trowell)
Mr Trowell eventually left to form his own company and came up with the Cybertongue technology which is being used in the dairy industry.
“The technology was developed to for early detection of explosive vapours,” he said.
“And then we went, ‘You know what? We can use it for a whole heap of other applications in food, in environmental testing, and also potentially medical’.”
Preventing milk waste
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimated world milk production at 979 million tonnes in 2024.
Dutch independent dairy and food research institute NIZO studies show up to one-sixth of that milk is wasted, or more than 150 million tonnes.
Up to one-sixth of the world’s milk is wasted, according to studies by Dutch dairy and food research institute NIZO. (ABC News)
Mr Trowell believes his company’s technology can significantly reduce that, particularly by preventing losses of long-life milk.
“UHT milk is a really big deal, it has a total value that is close to $100 billion,”
he said.
“Globally it’s really important, it’s at least half of all drinking milk.
“It’s available in lots of middle-income countries where they don’t necessarily have a chill chain to the consumer.
“It’s really important in the nutrition and food security of lots of people in the world.”
UHT makes up the majority of the world’s drinking milk, but its shelf life differs between countries. (ABC News: Brett Worthington)
Mr Trowell said using the technology to locate where problematic enzymes were originating in farms, supply chains or factories could prove vital.
“In some countries in the world, they don’t get nine or 12 months’ shelf life in the supermarket for their UHT, they get three months — and struggle to get that,”
he said.
“So our technology, our measurement of the protease helps Australian processors avoid the problem of the export.
“It helps the overseas processors extend their shelf life and have it able to sit on the supermarket shelf safely for maybe six months, not two or three.”
Benefits other than milk
PPB Technology launched its dairy technology in 2023 and it is already being used in North America, Europe, Africa, Oceania, Central Asia and India.
In future the Cybertongue technology may be expanded to test food for allergens or some bacterial toxins. (ABC News: Simon Beardsell)
Mr Trowell said while they were focused on dairy quality issues now, they believe the technology could be expanded to have wider benefits.
“We do want to move into the food safety domain with some other tests in the future, things like testing for food allergens and even some bacterial toxins,”
he said.
“In the future we also aim to help with some of those more human health catastrophes.
“I think there are multi, multi-million-dollar sales opportunities for this technology … that’s a way of measuring the impact that we can have.
“I honestly believe that we’ve got the opportunity for what you might call a unicorn, a billion-dollar valuation company, if we get the delivery and execution right.”
