The separation of ingredients from raw milk is an essential step during the production of dairy products. Membrane separation technology has been applied in the dairy processing industry for decades and has increasingly become indispensable in solving some problems such as separation, concentration, sterilization and in developing new dairy products. In this paper, the main applications of membrane separation technology in the dairy industry, including milk standardization, protein separation, whey desalination and waste water utilization are reviewed, in order to provide reference for process selection and optimization.