Fouling of pressure driven membrane processes during dairy processing remains a major design and operational challenge. As a result, cleaning of the fouled membranes to restore their original performance is considered to be critical. In this Study, the effectiveness of distilled water rinsing and alkaline (caustic) cleaning in recovering the performance of alpha-lactalbumin fouled polymeric microfiltration (MF) membranes has been investigated. The results indicate that the rinsing process is effective in removing the deposits from the membrane surface and chemical cleaning is required to clean the deposits formed inside the pores. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.