in the following description , dpw means “ deproteinized whey ”, which is the liquid remaining after treatment of whey to remove the majority of the whey proteins . the material is not deproteinized completely , but contains gmp and other residual proteins from mfgm ( milk fat globular membrane ) originally present in the whey . it is an advantage of the invention that the process can produce sds gel pure and hplc pure gmp from dpw . it is another advantage of the invention that it is now possible to produce a very high purity of gmp as compared to a process employing only cation exchange to separate gmp from whey or dpw . the purity obtainable by the invention can be characterized as greater than 91 % as measured by hplc , and preferably greater than 95 %. advantageously , the process of the invention should include the following three techniques in combination ( 1 ) macrofilteration membrane process is applied to remove fat and aggregated protein at ph 3 . 6 ; ( 2 ) cation exchange is applied to remove residual whey protein at ph 3 . 3 and ( 3 ) ultrafiltration membrane processing is applied to remove lactose , small peptides and minerals at ph 7 . 0 . in a preferred form of the invention , the macrofilteration membrane should be operated at ph 3 . 6 - 4 . 0 to filter gmp out and maintain the fat and aggregated protein in the membrane retentate . fresh deproteinized whey ( dpw ) was obtained from a commercial production of cheddar cheese utilizing bovine milk . the dpw was prepared from whey protein that was contacted with ion - exchanger to adsorb whey protein in the production of a commercial whey protein concentrate . a preferred form of dpw is that obtained from the preparation of full - fat , reduced - fat or fat - free cheese from bovine milk using a chymosin , for example , rennet . a preferred form of ion exchange resin suitable for use in present invention is a cellulose ion exchanger having sulfonic acid groups . processing of bovine whey according to the invention entails treating , such as by centrifuge , ion - exchanger or microfiltration to remove fat , whey protein and aggregated proteins ( e . g ., having a size above about 400 , 000 daltons ) to produce a deproteinized whey ( dpw ) suitable for further processing . the ph in dpw is reduced , such as by adjusting to a ph of about 3 . 5 to 4 , and then the dpw is passed through a microfiltration ( mf ) membrane to remove fat , aggregated protein , and to concentrate gmp . significantly , the microfiltration membrane should be of a material and porosity to achieve the essentially complete separation of fat , large molecular material , as well as small molecular weight materials . exemplary of suitable membranes are those produced by snyder filtration , available as 0 . 1 micro mf membrane . a permeate is recovered from the microfiltration procedure . the mf permeate can be referred to as mfdpw , which means “ deproteinized whey ” that has been further processed by microfiltration . the mfdpw can be concentrated as above or otherwise to achieve a desired concentration of from about 0 . 1 to about 6 weight % solids . the mfdpw is applied to a suitable ion exchange , e . g ., cation exhange , resin to remove the non - gmp peptides and protein at acid ph , e . g ., ph 3 . 2 - 3 . 4 . exemplary of suitable ion exchange resins , e . g ., sp resins , are those produced by life technology , nz and available as sp resins , including sp - sepharose resins . the effluent of the sp resin treatment is collected and the ph is adjusted back to neutral , i . e ., about 7 . a diafiltration processing by using uf membrane is applied to remove lactose , small peptides and minerals from the sp resin effluent . the diafiltration apparatus is characterized by 3k , 5k or 10k uf membrane . exemplary of suitable diafiltration apparatus are those produced by snyder filtration , ca and available as ultrafiltration membranes . the final uf concentrate is spray dried . a low fat , high sialic acid content gmp powder is obtained . the purity of gmp is sds gel and hplc pure . alternatively , the mf membrane processing could be applied after the ion exchange processing . table 1 shows the average parameters for the gmp produced by the above mentioned processing . the following examples are presented to further illustrate and explain the invention and should not be taken as limiting in any regard . unless otherwise indicated , all parts and percentages are by weight . a batch of 100 l of dpw was obtained from a commercial cheese plant , and it was added into sp resin reactor at ph 3 . 3 to adsorb the residual whey protein . the reactor effluent was collected and ph was adjusted to 7 . a 0 . 1 micron membrane was applied to remove fat and aggregated protein . the permeate from the mf membrane was pumped into a 10k membrane to remove the lactose , small peptides and mineral by diafiltration . after spray drying , 1 . 8 kg gmp powder was obtained . table 2 shows the gmp powder composition . a batch of 377 l of uf concentrated dpw with total protein of 3 . 7 % ( total n × 6 . 38 ) was obtained from a commercial cheese plant . the ph was adjusted to 3 . 6 , and then was pumped into a 0 . 1 micron membrane system to remove fat and aggregated protein . the permeate was collected and then was pumped into an sp resin reactor to remove the residual whey protein at ph 3 . 3 . the effluent from the sp resin reactor was collected , and the ph was adjusted to 7 . 0 . a 10 k membrane was applied to remove the lactose , small peptides and mineral by diafiltration . the 10 k concentrated material was sent to a spray dried . a 2 . 23 kg product of gmp powder was obtained . table 3 provides the details obtained by analysis of the recovered powder . the above description is intended to enable the person skilled in the art to practice the invention . it is not intended to detail all of the possible modifications and variations which will become apparent to the skilled worker upon reading the description . it is intended , however , that all such modifications and variations be included within the scope of the invention which is seen in the above description and otherwise defined by the following claims . the claims are meant to cover the indicated elements and steps in any arrangement or sequence which is effective to meet the objectives intended for the invention , unless the context specifically indicates the contrary . 1 . eigel , w . n . butler , j . e ., ernstrom , c . a . farrll , h . m . harwallker , v . r . jennesss , r ., and whitney , r . mcl ., 1984 , “ nomenclature of proteins of cow &# 39 ; s milk : fifth revision “ j . dairy sci . 67 : 1599 . 2 . mckenzie , h . a . 1971 , “ composition , physicochemical and functional properties of reference whey protein concentrates ”. j . food sci . 50 : 1406 . 3 . morr , c . v . and seo , a ., 1988 ” fractionation and characterization of glycomacropeptide from caseinate and skim milk hydrolysates ”, j . food sci ., 53 : 80 . 4 . tanimoto , m ., kawasaki , y ., sanralzu , h ., dosako , s . and tomizawa , a ., 1990 “ process for producing kappa - casein glycomacropeptides ”. european patent application . no . 90303044 . 8 . 5 . yamada , k ., ikeda , i ., nakajima , h ., shirahata , s . and murakami , h ., ( 1991 ) “ stimulation of proliferation and immunoglobulin production of human - human hybridomas by various types of caseins and their protease digests ”, cytotechnology 5 : 279 - 285 . 6 . shunichi dosako , urawa : hiroko kusano , tokorozawa ; eiki deya , sayama and tadashi idota , kawagoe , 1992 “ infection protectant ” u . s . patent . no . 5 , 147 , 853 . 7 . yoshihiro kawasaki , kawaggoe and shunichi dosako , urawa ( 1994 ) “ process for producing kappa - casein glycomacropeptides ” u . s . pat . no . 5 , 278 , 288 .
the production of gmp in suitable quantities and of suitable quality for supply to the food , pharmaceutical , cosmetic , and other industries , is provided . the overall cheese making is made more efficient by recovering valuable kappa - casein glycomacropeptides from whey in a manner that permits most whey protein to be separated from the whey prior to concentrating and recovering glycomacropeptides from bovine whey . the invention provides procedures working on concentrated micro - filtered deproteinized whey protein and obtaining a purified residue which can be dried .