Unlocking Milk’s Nutrients Aquero Canada’s Fractionation Process for Fortified Dairy

Aquero Canada Ltd. has filed a patent for a novel process for preparing fortified milk compositions from whole mammalian milk – separating the dried milk into distinct fats-enriched, protein-enriched and carbohydrate-enriched fractions that can then be recombined in defined proportions to create nutritionally fortified dairy products.

The Problem

Milk is one of humanity’s oldest and most nutritionally complete foods, providing fats, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals in a naturally bioavailable form. However, the nutritional composition of whole milk varies between species, individuals and seasons, and is not always optimally matched to the needs of specific consumer populations. Infant formula, medical nutrition products, sports nutrition supplements and fortified dairy products all require precise control over the protein, fat and carbohydrate content in ways that are difficult to achieve from whole milk without separating and recombining its key components.

Existing milk fractionation technologies – such as cream separation, membrane filtration and enzymatic processing – are well established for producing individual fractions such as cream, skim milk, whey protein concentrate and milk protein isolate. However, these processes are typically designed for liquid milk and require large-scale, energy-intensive equipment. They also tend to denature or alter milk proteins during processing, affecting the functional properties of the resulting fractions.

Processing from dried milk presents a different set of challenges and opportunities. Dried milk is more easily stored, transported and standardised as a starting material, but separating its lipid, protein and carbohydrate components requires different processing approaches than those used for liquid milk. A gentle, effective method for fractionating dried milk while preserving the functional integrity of each component would enable greater flexibility in producing customised dairy nutrition products.

What This Invention Does

Aquero Canada’s invention starts with dried mammalian milk as the raw material and uses a fats-extracting agent to separate the dried milk into its major component fractions. The fats-extracting agent selectively partitions the lipid fraction away from the proteins and carbohydrates, producing a fats-enriched fraction and a residual fraction containing proteins and carbohydrates.

The process involves treating the dried milk with the fats-extracting agent, allowing the lipid-rich and residual fractions to separate, and then recovering each separately. The fats-extracting agent is removed from the separated fats-enriched fraction to produce a dry, oily, fats-rich material. The residual fraction, enriched in proteins and carbohydrates, is retained separately.

Once the fractions are isolated, they can be recombined in controlled proportions to produce fortified milk compositions with defined macronutrient profiles. This recombination flexibility is the key commercial value of the process: by adjusting the ratio of the fats, protein and carbohydrate fractions, a manufacturer can produce dairy nutrition products with precisely the protein, fat and carbohydrate levels required for a specific application – whether that is high-protein sports nutrition, a lower-fat infant formula variant, or a medically prescribed nutrition supplement.

Key Features

Dried milk starting material. The process uses dried mammalian milk rather than liquid milk, providing a standardised, shelf-stable raw material that simplifies supply chain management and allows consistent starting compositions.

Fats-extracting agent fractionation. A fats-extracting agent selectively partitions the lipid component from the protein and carbohydrate residual fraction, enabling a clean separation of the three major macronutrient groups.

Three-fraction separation. The process produces distinct fats-enriched, protein-enriched and carbohydrate-enriched fractions that can be handled, stored and recombined independently.

Extracting agent removal. The fats-extracting agent is removed from the separated lipid fraction to produce a dry oily material, ensuring the finished fats component is free of processing aids.

Fortified composition production. The isolated fractions can be recombined in defined proportions to produce fortified milk compositions with precisely controlled macronutrient profiles for specific nutritional applications.

Who Is Behind It?

Aquero Canada Ltd. is a Canadian company focused on novel dairy processing and nutrition technologies. The sole inventor Steven C. Sikes brings expertise in dairy chemistry and food processing. The application is filed through Wynnes Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys in Brisbane and is a divisional of an earlier filing (AU 2020225089), reflecting a sustained development programme in milk fractionation and fortification technology.

Why It Matters

The global dairy nutrition market – encompassing infant formula, adult nutrition products, sports protein supplements and medical nutritional support – is vast and growing. Consumer and clinical demand for dairy-based nutrition products with precisely defined macronutrient profiles creates strong commercial incentives for fractionation processes that can deliver consistent, high-quality separated milk components at commercially relevant scales.

The ability to start from dried milk – a standardised, globally traded commodity – rather than fresh liquid milk makes Aquero Canada’s process potentially more accessible to manufacturers in regions without reliable fresh milk supplies. By separating the macronutrient fractions gently and recombining them in controlled proportions, the process enables a degree of nutritional customisation that is difficult to achieve from whole liquid milk. For manufacturers serving the specialist nutrition market – infant formula producers, medical nutrition companies and sports nutrition brands – this kind of formulation flexibility is genuinely valuable, and a robust, commercially scalable fractionation process would represent a useful addition to the dairy processing toolkit.

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AU 2026201620 was published in the Australian Official Journal of Patents on 19 March 2026 and is open for public inspection. Patent applications represent inventions that are sought to be protected and do not necessarily reflect commercially available products.