Nutritional properties of a colada drink supplemented with sweet whey

Whey is an important industrial by product of the dairy industry, resulting from cheese making, with a high nutritional value that has changed its consideration as an environmental problem to a source of bioactive compounds In developing countries, like Ecuador, whey is discard without any treatment because of the high cost of processing it, creating an important problem for the environment and wasting a valuable product for a population with a high malnutrition issue It is of great interest to find a direct use of whey in cheese factories as a food ingredient Using whey as a substitute of water in a popular drink in Ecuador named Colada, made from fruit juice and cereals, will increase the nutritional value of the beverage and would require little processing for the industry. Using a Colada beverage made with whey 70 Maracuya juice 30 barley 10 sucrose 1 and aromatic spices 1 we have carried out in vitro digestions following the INFOGEST protocol Analysis of the degree of hydrolysis, protein, fatty acid and amino acid profile after digestion revealed that this beverage is full of nutritional components that could have many health promoting properties.