Current and future applications for nanofiltration technology in the food processing

• Present the applications and the recent development of NF in the food processing.
• The potential advantages of NF over conventional process have been reported.
• The future potential of NF processes in the food industries is summarized.
• The important characteristics and new applications of NF are briefly discussed.

The increase in energy costs and the demands for products with greater nutritional value and of processing procedures less toxic to the environment are attractive factors for transferring membrane processing to food industries. Nanofiltration (NF) technology is still evolving, finding more and more applications in food processing and appears as an important alternative to conventional methods. The purpose of this review is to present the recent development and future potential of NF processes in the food industry. Recent research has highlighted the potential for NF use in wide ranging, including water softening, wastewater treatment, vegetable oil processing, beverage, dairy and sugar industry. NF has been established as greater separation efficiency, successfully reduces the wastewater, done under low temperatures, reduction in number of processing steps and presents a promising choice toward the achievement of cost effective process. NF carries quite distinctive properties such as pore radius and surface charge density which influences the separation of various solutes.