How to clarify whey protein drink

July 29, 2016 9:25 AM

Is it possible to clarify a whey protein drink (unflavoured, mixed into water from powder) by using fining agents? Or some other method? I want it to look and taste as much like water as possible. Dilution is an option.
posted by danteGideon to Food & Drink (24 answers total)

I'd think dilution is your only option, but you'll have to dilute it so much that there will be barely any protein in it in the first place. Protein is chemically not compatible with your desires, as it's made up of fairly large, opaque molecules that just don't behave like water.
posted by Aleyn at 9:32 AM on July 29, 2016 [8 favorites]

Just based on the sheer quantity of protein in one of those drinks, I don't think it'd be possible. So you may want to look for protein powders with flavors that you would normally associate with water, like lemonade and fruit juice flavors and so on - off the top of my head, the Syntrax Nectar line has lots of those flavors, so you may want to check it out.
posted by un petit cadeau at 9:37 AM on July 29, 2016

I don't know the industrial process that makes it possible, but there are bottled "protein water" drinks on the market now (just Google it) so it is theoretically possible to make such a thing. If you're not married to the idea of doing it yourself, I would just buy a few different kinds and see if they're to your liking.
posted by telegraph at 9:37 AM on July 29, 2016

There are weird clear protein drinks called Isopure. They are rather strongly flavored, if I recall correctly -- but don't taste like typical protein drinks, more like a sports drink. They also make powders. I have no idea if this helps, or how they accomplish the clear drink, but it's certainly the right direction of clear + unflavored.
posted by so fucking future at 9:38 AM on July 29, 2016 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Yes, that's what made me think it can be done. The funky colours rule it out in itself. A very slight flavour is probably OK, but not Alpine Fruit Punch or whatever. More like, a very mild bitter or salt taste would be OK.
posted by danteGideon at 10:20 AM on July 29, 2016

More like, a very mild bitter or salt taste would be OK.

The vanilla Whey To Go* has virtually no taste (to me). Maybe a very mild taste of... something? But I've only used it in warm water and guzzled it, so if you're looking for something that would be refreshing and/or for sipping, you might want to add honey or lemon or both (it's not sweetened in the way the chocolate version is).

*Sorry for no link. Google and you will find many distributors, including Amazon.
posted by whoiam at 10:34 AM on July 29, 2016

This is the kind of question that Dave Arnold at Cooking Issues would love, so it might be worth emailing or tweeting at him.
posted by ghharr at 11:00 AM on July 29, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Would breaking the proteins down into amino acids be acceptable? If so, some meat tenderizer or fresh pineapple juice, both of which contain proteases, might break down the proteins in a way that makes the mixture clearer but doesn't reduce the nutritional value. Because they're enzymes, you should be able to use a small amount and then leave the mixture to sit for a while as the enzymes chomp through protein after protein.
posted by clawsoon at 11:45 AM on July 29, 2016

Response by poster: Ah, that's more the kind of thing I'm looking for. Although I don't know whether breaking the protein down would be undesirable. The Isopure one, as far as I can work out, uses an emulsifying agent called polysorbate-80, which doesn't sound like the kind of thing you can pick up at the shops!
posted by danteGideon at 1:45 PM on July 29, 2016

fyi I can't speak to your dilution/texture issue but: More like, a very mild bitter or salt taste would be OK.

You can buy unflavoured protein to flavour yourself. It's.... quite unappetising in my opinion and just as thick as regular protein, but it has no strong artificial flavour.
posted by smoke at 2:58 PM on July 29, 2016

You could try what people do to clarify soups and camp coffee - egg whites.

It works by getting rid of the insoluble protein in the mixture. If the point of the drink was as a source of protein, this is bonkerballs.

Don't know how much of the protein it pulls out of the water - by removing the haziness you're removing the (albeit longer-chain) protein that's causing the haziness (so, I guess you get dilute water with some freed amino acids; you're better off mixing up a cocktail of chemically pure amino acids, at least you have control of the exact ratios and amounts).

This is like the micellular water bs.
posted by porpoise at 11:18 PM on July 29, 2016

Best answer: Apologies.

To answer the question, look towards recipes and instructions on how to make Consommé, which is essentially a distillation of "all the good stuffs" from a chunk of animal. Shins tend to be very well suited to this culinary treatment.
posted by porpoise at 11:29 PM on July 29, 2016

Response by poster: So to clarify (I am funny), this is for an autistic seven-year old who has a very restricted diet and needs protein; it's this or a surgical feeding tube. As far as I can tell from the ingredients listed online, 'enteral' formula is basically whey or casein protein powder with water, oil, vitamin powder and salt. He gets everything but the protein in his usual diet.

Consommé sounds good but 'tasteless' consommé is such a faux pas that no-one seems to make it on purpose. Any recipes?

I will also try the protease and see how that affects the drink. I am fairly hopeful about unflavored protein powder, diluted and chilled to reduce the taste and any clouding. Chilling has the bonus of clouding the glass itself, so a slightly cloudy drink is less noticeable.

This will all have to be approved by the professionals, of course, but it will help to have something to suggest other than an operation, which from past experience he will react to extremely badly and which I therefore see as the very last resort.
posted by danteGideon at 7:09 AM on July 30, 2016

Best answer: What about Knox gelatin? I think if you dissolve it in hot water and leave it warm to drink it won't gel. I'm not sure how clear it ends up. One 7g serving has 6g of protein.
posted by CathyG at 9:05 AM on July 30, 2016 [2 favorites]

Can you give examples of his present diet? We had great success in a very very similar situation by adding unflavored protein to the other diet items like icecream and pancakes.
posted by Iteki at 2:00 AM on July 31, 2016

Response by poster: He eats crisps and croissants, which contain surprisingly decent amounts of salt, fat, carbs; but no protein, unfortunately. He's very sensitive to flavour and the only mild success we've had is diluting water-based vitamins in his glasses of water. He easily drinks 1.5 litres of water a day, he just likes to have a medium swig every so often.
posted by danteGideon at 5:44 AM on July 31, 2016

Best answer: Hydrolyzed collagen or collagen hydrolyzate is unflavored gelatin that's been broken down to dissolve in cold liquids. I buy it on amazon (zint, Great Lakes, etc) and mix it in to coffee, chocolate milk, or juice. I use a lot, so it changes the texture of the liquid (thickens it), but not so much the flavor or color.
posted by Neekee at 7:19 AM on July 31, 2016

Please note that protein powders, if consumed without sufficient fiber intake, can cause constipation.
posted by Neekee at 7:23 AM on July 31, 2016

Response by poster: I will be trying all combinations of these. I have also found, after much research, that increasing the acidity masks the whey quite well. I've used vinegar so far but the proportions are ticklish.

It's a mystery to me that there isn't a product like this on the market. Cancelling out the different properties to get the drink you want is just an engineering problem, regularly solved by manufacturers. If I had access to the research and materials they do, I'm pretty sure it would be easy. Ah well.
posted by danteGideon at 9:37 AM on July 31, 2016

Response by poster: Turns out you *can* buy Polysorbate-80, and it's not very expensive (I just used Amazon). I also emailed a few places that offer 'custom sports drinks', to see what they can suggest. I'm going to keep updating here in case anyone else is looking for this stuff in future.

Coming up:
- Collagen hydrolysate
- whey protein hydrolysate
- meat tenderizer powder
- emulsifiers

Hopefully I will find some decent combination soon.
posted by danteGideon at 9:21 AM on August 1, 2016

Response by poster: Collagen hydrolysate works very well so far; completely colourless and tasteless when diluted sufficiently. Whey hydrolysate is so revolting I doubt the taste could ever be masked. Very runny soft cheese odour.

I am also going to try supplementing with some powdered egg white, as collagen has only eight of the nine essential amino acids. You need to add tryptophan somehow (reference, paywalled I'm afraid). It's in plenty of stuff although apparently quite bitter on its own. Will see what kind of mix works.
posted by danteGideon at 5:06 AM on August 2, 2016

Response by poster: Powdered egg white: remains cloudy with a mild unpleasant taste even highly diluted.
Emulsifiers: don't seem to do anything for cloudiness. Possibly Isopure combine with a centrifuge process etc.; I wrote to them but they were understandably cagey.
Tryptophan: RDA is only 200mg so I will try it in powdered.
posted by danteGideon at 4:32 AM on August 4, 2016

Is the person in question's ... distaste for protein come from a neurological miswiring where umami flavours are processed as unpleasant?

I would recommend an experiment where the person in question is blind to the treatment; vegetable broth (if that is currently tolerated) with a small amount of one of the following ingredients;

1) vegetable-based MSG (5-10 iodized table salt-grain-sized crystals per cup of broth)
2) yeast-based MSG (to same as above)
3) baking yeast (to same as above)
4) nothing added

and evaluate the results.

I'm a little concerned that you brought up meat tenderizer powder. It's typically pappain (an enzyme derived from papayas) or some other desiccation-stable vegetable enzyme that breaks cysteine bonds.

I'm also a little concerned that the criteria is "clear" - is this an psychological/emotional thing or is it a minimum of solids-in-colon thing? Will they not injest non-clear liquids?
posted by porpoise at 7:56 PM on August 12, 2016

Response by poster: We're not sure why his diet is so restricted; he's quite non-verbal and used to have a much more varied diet. He's also hypersensitive to taste and colour, and wary of being tricked, hence the criteria.

For the record, after testing various powders, we've got the go-ahead for 10g hydrolysed beef gelatin in 1.2l of water. It's chilled to reduce the taste even further. About 10-1 water-protein seems to be the taste threshold.
posted by danteGideon at 7:26 AM on August 23, 2016