Dairy market of Mediterranean countries is substantially different from east or north European countries. Cow’s milk is mainly processed into UHT milk and fermented milks, and most of the other ruminant species production (principally ewe milk, but also goat and buffalo’s milk), is transformed into cheeses (Manchego, Pecorino, Beyaz Peynir, Mozzarella, Feta). For example, cheese production from ewe’s milk (Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal, France, Turkey and Jordania), is about 332,8 million Kg/year [FAO, 2014]. Milk production is also scattered.

However, the dairy sector is very important for the maintenance of rural economy, and for biodiversity and sustainability of rural areas. Dairy products are an important part of the Mediterranean Diet, with high levels of nutritional protein; animals like ewes and goats are more suitable for Mediterranean climate, with grazing capacity in areas where dairy cows cannot do it.

In central and western Europe, large factories process cow’s milk using large automatized full lines, and they can afford to invest in high capacity processing equipment, both for whey concentration and drying, and for the elaboration of high quality protein fractions (to be used as ingredient for infant formula, and for sports drinks). In fact, this valorisation of whey protein is more profitable than cheese elaboration: in some factories, whey protein has turned into the main source of added value, while cheese is just a co-product, sold at low price, just to complement the whey protein income. For example, Germany produces 1.890,9 million Kg/year of cow’s milk cheese, and 348,5 million Kg/year of dry whey powder (cheese whey has 95% of water, so you need to process a whey volume 20 times higher than the weight) [FAO, 2014]. To compete with these very large factories and high volumes of processed milk, the warm countries around the Mediterranean Sea are in large difficulties. They compete with high organoleptic quality dairy products, and with milk from livestock species different from cow. However, lack of appropriate valorisation of whey protein is a serious disadvantage for these companies.