Earlier this year, the European Commission announced its intention to dish out €114M to the Irish government for dairy development projects under its AgriVision 2015 Action Plan. The Republic has spawned an enviable catalogue of home grown talent over the years, such as Glanbia Nutritionals, Carbery Ingredients and Kerry Ingredients, which explains why the EC singled out Ireland for this particular sum. The aim is to position the country at the forefront of added-value dairy products, and that includes improving whey protein concentrate production.
Dairy products provide an excellent source of proteins, including casein and whey, which have been used in food and drinks to supplement diets since the early 1990s. Milk proteins are ideal for use in functional products because they have an excellent amino acid profile. Derived both from whey and casein, they are highly soluble and easy to digest. Whey protein isolate, comes from sweet or acid whey and contains no casein. It is the purest protein money can buy and it's fast digesting, hence it is the favoured option for many manufacturers developing protein-fortified food and drinks.
Whey protein has traditionally been used in sports nutrition, infant formula and clinical nutrition products to bolster protein levels in people with specific medical or nutritional needs. More recently it has started to infiltrate mainstream markets. Consumers are consciously trying to live healthier lives and this has provided manufacturers with an opportunity to develop foods and drinks enriched with whey and casein to boost nutrient levels.
Dr Susan Lawlor is new technology and applications manager at Glanbia Nutritionals. She says: "The application of whey protein is starting to diversify from sports and infant formula and into the mainstream food market. This trend originates in Japan where smaller dose rates of protein are being incorporated into mass market products. It is just starting to hit the EU market. The use of whey protein isolate to fortify everyday products such as smoothies, nutrition bars and confectionery, is now increasing."
Glanbia pioneered the cross-flow microfiltration process in the early 1990s for producing premium-grade protein isolate with a very high un-denatured protein content and which is low in fat and lactose. The end product has a neutral flavour and is suitable for food and drinks. Glanbia is always looking for novel ways of exploiting components of the whey stream, particularly ways to deliver its ingredients as bioavailable and active components of diet. Examples include the fat loss product Prolibra, Revive for post-exercise recovery and VPO Max which significantly enhances oxygen carriage in racehorses. It also has a novel anti-microbial designed to act as a preservative in yeast-prone beverages and as a value-adding component of personal care offerings.
The UK's Volac International is a significant player in the global sports nutrition market but has also spent the past few years developing products suitable for mass-market consumption. Three years ago Volac developed a heat-stable whey protein that can be pasteurised without changing the composition of the whey. And last year it perfected a technique for producing extruded whey crisps for use in energy bars and cereals to give them a more healthy profile.
Technical product manager of food ingredients, Naomi Grant, says: "The market for whey protein supplements and power bars started in the US where consumers are less concerned about taste and texture. But products need to be more palatable for the EU market and this is where our whey crisps come into play. What we want to see now is whey protein used in drinks for everyday consumption. At the moment, there are milkshake-style protein drinks, such as Goodness Shakes, targeting men after a workout, but if whey was added to a shake it would add a pure form of protein that would be hugely beneficial."
There are still technical issues that need to be addressed for ready-to-drink beverages, such as heat stability, emulsion stability and flavour. Villaume Kal, business director of PeptoPro at DSM Food Specialties, says: "There are quite a few technical issues surrounding milk proteins. These include purity, type of protein, flowability, sensory properties, stability, enzyme performance, and degree of hydrolysis, to name a few. However, their importance very much depends on the final application: dry, wet?, powders, bars, or drinks."
Finding new applications for dairy protein and investigating how these can be developed into mainstream products is progressing, nonetheless. Kerry Ingredients recently designed milk proteins derived from casein that can alleviate the symptoms of inflammatory diseases, for example. Marketing services manager, Margaret Greaney, says: "Ultranor Bio-M is one of our more recent developments.
"Launched last year, it is a bioactive milk protein clinically proven to reduce the risk symptoms and triggers of inflammatory diseases, as well as overall body weight and cholesterol. It can be applied to a wide range of application categories including nutritional beverages (dry-mix and ready-to-drink), nutritional supplement drinks, nutritional bars, yoghurt and fermented dairy drinks."
Other manufacturers are looking into heart health and the effects of whey-derived proteins on blood pressure and their anti-hypertensive effect. There has been a lot of research into the use of whey as a calcium source and its ability to simulate the immune system and prevent muscle deterioration. Sarcopenia, the age-related loss of muscle mass, is seen as one area ripe for development.
"Rising obesity levels, an ageing population, specific dietary requirements, the increase in the incidence of certain diseases and a general trend towards healthy lifestyles continue to drive demand for more varied, tasty, functional, convenient and nutritious food and beverage products," says Greaney. Recent findings indicate that milk proteins, especially casein, are potentially a rich source of bioactive components, she adds.
DSM's Kal, however, believes the biggest opportunity is mass-market beverages, which have until now been driven by herbals and botanicals, rather than milk proteins. He says the mass-market typically only allows for ingredients with a limited cost. "Adding proteins, however, from a nutritional or functional perspective, could be very interesting, in particular in low-carbohydrate drinks," he adds.
Ingredients manufacturers are also improving existing basic whey protein formulations, such as infant formula products that more closely mimic breast milk, and sports formulas with better nutritional properties.
"There are significant demands for both techno-functional and physio-functional products," says Greaney. "In the medical nutrition sector, for example, there is rising demand for more concentrated nutrition where both physio and techno-functional attributes are key. Manufacturers are looking for products with the correct amino acid and nutritional profile to suit a specific disease or disorder. But they also want products that deliver improved organoleptic properties as well as enhanced viscosity and extended shelf-life characteristics."
The new EU Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation could present a barrier to mass-market implementation, however, warns Noel Corcoran, sales and marketing director at Carbery Food Ingredients. "Unlike soya, the whey protein market consists of quite small players, and soya has a pull factor within the market. The benefits of whey are not really known by the population in general and it doesn't have a positive consumer image. We need to persuade food and drink manufacturers of the benefits of using whey in the mainstream market. We have to push the point to manufacturers rather than them being led by the pull from consumers."
Kal agrees: "The difficulty is creating awareness of the benefits of protein, and peptides in particular, with those sports people who are as yet unaware. This is a matter of very targeted communication over a longer time period. Obviously, there are also large regional differences, with the US clearly leading the way."