NAMPA, Idaho — Idahoans love their dairy, and many have probably seen Lactalis mozzarella string cheese made right here in Nampa.
For this week’s Made in Idaho, Idaho News 6 went behind the scenes at the Lactalis plant to see how the local maker is joining the growing craze of producing powdered protein.
WATCH: Inside the Nampa dairy plant turning Idaho milk into protein powder
Inside the Lactalis plant in Nampa, milk moves through several different production lines.
Site director Simon Perrier says the plant makes pizza cheese, fresh mozzarella, string cheese, and whey powders.
But one of the newer parts of the operation is focused on turning Idaho milk into protein powder.
“The whey protein trend is crazy right now in the US, booming,” Perrier said. “So we developed a new process since 2015 to be able to extract the whey protein from the milk without going to the cheese-making.”
That is the difference, Perrier says, that separates this product from many other whey protein powders.
The company says it takes roughly 35 gallons of raw milk to make two pounds of finished protein powder.
From there, the plant extracts the whey protein, concentrates it, dries it, and packages it.
“All the whey proteins you can find on the market are coming from the cheese-making process,” Perrier said. “This one is very special because again, we extract it from the milk directly.”
The whey protein and other dairy products can be found at the Lactalis Nampa cheese store, which is open on Fridays.
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This story was initially reported by a journalist and has been, in part, converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
