The quality of low lactose milk is affected by the side proteolytic activity of the lactase used in the production process

•Lactase side activities affect the quality of low lactose milk.•The hydrolysis of lactose combined with proteolysis changes milk chemistry during storage.•Lactase in batch addition, before the UHT treatment, limits the backside proteolysis.•Formation of Maillard products can be controlled by using purer lactase.

Lactose intolerance syndrome can be efficiently tackled consuming low lactose products. Lactase is the key tool to manufacture low lactose milk (LLM): its addition during milk processing can be done “in batch”, i.e. before thermal treatment, or directly “in pack” after sterilization. In this paper data on sensory properties, Maillard Reaction products (MRPs) and free amino acids formation were obtained on six commercial Italian LLMs over six months storage. They showed that the side proteolytic activity of lactase caused the release of amino acids with a significant higher MRPs and off-flavors formation in four out of five samples produced by adding the enzyme in the pack after thermal treatment. We concluded that the in pack addition of lactase after milk sterilization can have negative sensorial and nutritional consequences mainly related to the enzyme side proteolytic activity especially for prolonged storage time.

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