Integration of membrane technologies into conventional existing systems in the food industry

Membrane technologies represent very efficient tools in the agro-food production due their intrinsic properties. The combination of different membrane operations in the preparation of traditional food products and in the treatment of agro-food wastewaters contributes to simplify and rationalize the traditional flow sheets of the agro-food productions leading to significant improvement of process performance, food quality and recovery of primary resources. This Chapter deals with the most relevant applications of integrated membrane operations in specific areas of the agro-food production including fruit juice, wine and whey processing where the combination of different membrane technologies has been largely explored on both laboratory and industrial scale. Technological advances and improvements over conventional methodologies will be analyzed and discussed.