Arla Foods Ingredients develops high-protein beverage solution

Arla Foods Ingredients has created a low-volume, high-protein nutritional supplement for medical purposes.

The beverage prototype has 10g of protein per 100ml shot, making it suitable for patients who require whey protein in a low-volume nutritional treatment.

As an excellent source of essential amino acids and leucine, whey protein is increasingly in demand in the medical nutrition market. 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.

However, Arla Foods Ingredients said the production of high-protein whey beverages comes with challenges; they can gel over time, taste can be compromised and, if the ingredient is not heat-stable, processing equipment can be blocked.

The new beverage prototype aims to overcome these challenges. Developed for medical nutrition manufacturers, it is UHT-stable and delivers 10% protein content, all of which comes from whey.

The concept utilises Arla Foods Ingredients’ Lacprodan DI-7325, a whey ingredient specially designed for medical nutrition. The ingredient is suitable for beverages containing minerals, and is said to maintain good viscosity (with no gelation over time) as well as good heat stability.

Inge Lise Povlsen, senior category manager at Arla Foods Ingredients, said: “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.”