Affinity adsorption processes for food industries: need or dream

Due to changing demands of consumers (functional foods, nutraceuticals, natural ingredients), changing needs of industries (process intensifi cation) and more stringent legislation (safety, water and energy reduction) the need for new separation techniques in the food industry has increased. Although chromatography is mostly employed in the pharmaceutical industry, now also the food industries, especially the industries producing nutraceuticals, fl avours and fragrances tend to consider `novel and expensive¿ separation techniques such as chromatography, membrane assisted affi nity sorption (MAAS), pervaporation and supercritical processing as processes that could result in new products and in economic production processes. Membrane Assisted Adsorptive Separation is a separation technology in which the specifi city of adsorption and the high capacity of microfi ltration are combined in one unit operation. In an overview the importance of adsorptive separations for the food industry will be explained and developments in this fi eld especially with respect to cost-eff ective affi nity separations will be summarised. Examples of projects carried out by Agrotechnology and Food Innovations B.V for industrial customers will be given to underline the increasing importance of affi nity adsorptive processes in the food industry.