Enzymes have a vital role in adding value to milk, and their function varies
widely from coagulants used to make cheese, to bioprotective enzymes used to enhance
the shelf-life of dairy products, proteases used for acceleration of cheese ripening and
modification of functional properties of milk proteins, lipases used to develop lipolytic
flavors in cheese ripening, and lactases used to hydrolyze lactose to alleviate lactose
intolerance and produce galactooligosaccharides as dietary fibers. This chapter (i)
presents the recent advances in enzyme discovery approaches used to search for novel
enzymes with interesting features, supported by few examples of relevance to the dairy
industry, and (ii) discusses the up-to-date developments in industrial dairy enzyme
applications, with particular focus on lactose bioconversion by lactose hydrolysis and
transgalactosylation.
Keywords: Cultivation Techniques, Extremophiles, Galactooligosaccharides,
Lactose Hydrolysis, Lactose Oxidation, Metagenomics, Protein Engineering.
