Arla Foods Ingredients develops high-protein supplement for medical nutrition

DENMARK – Arla Foods Ingredients has unveiled a low-volume (100ml) RTD high-protein nutritional supplement for medical nutrition and designed to address challenges in producing high-quality medical beverages.

The new prototype contains 10g of protein packed into a 100ml shot to be used by patients in need of high-quality protein in a low-volume nutritional treatment.

According to Arla, the concept overcomes the challenges of producing high-quality whey protein beverages for medical purposes, occasionally limited by gelation.

As the whey protein beverages gel with time, taste is compromised and, if the ingredient is not heat-stable, processing equipment can be blocked.

This restrains the use of whey protein in various applications despite being an excellent source of essential amino acids and leucine.

Arla says the high-protein solution overcomes this challenge, thus opening wider applications of whey protein.

According to Innova Market Insights, the number of global medical nutrition beverage product launches featuring whey protein grew by 9.9% CAGR between 2012 and 2017.

The supplement is UHT-stable and delivers 10% protein content, all of which comes from whey and contains added minerals according to FSMP (Food for special medical purposes) rules.

“There is increasing demand for low-volume medical nutritional food and beverages with high levels of high-quality protein.

The excellent nutritional profile of whey protein makes it the perfect ingredient for this.

But the fact is whey proteins can be challenging in beverages when concentration increases.

Thanks to Lacprodan DI-7325, your next low-volume, high-protein medical beverage solution will have great heat stability, it won’t gel over time, and it won’t compromise on taste,” said Inge Lise Povlsen, Senior Category Manager at Arla Foods Ingredients.

The new concept was developed by a team of Arla experts using Lacprodan DI-7325, a high-quality whey ingredient specially designed for medical nutrition.

The ingredient is suitable for beverages containing minerals and maintains good viscosity (with no gelation over time) as well as good heat stability.

The company also launched a whey-based protein shot concept for manufacturers, called The ‘Protein Extreme’ last year.

Made with Arla’s Lacprodan HYDRO.365 whey protein hydrolysate, the concept contains 20g of whey protein and 98 calories in a 100ml serving.