The milk fat globule membrane as an ingredient:: why, how, when?

This paper presents a personal view on the potential applications of the milk fat globule membrane as an ingredient in the processed foods area. Several factors are of importance for this dissertation: the biological origin of the membrane, the voluminous literature on its individual components and their relationship with health and wellness, the biological role of milk in nutrition to mammals and the innovation on scientific tools being applied in many fields of chemistry and biology. We hope to give a glimpse of the reasons on why it is a good idea to use more efficiently the components of the milk fat globule membrane. In addition we consider current advances in the fractionation of milk components to propose how this ingredient can be produced. However, we leave the timing question, when?, open for discussion in the different scientific and technological fields.