Press release -

Affordable dairy ingredients may relieve child hunger

Leading food aid specialists shared research results at Arla Foods Ingredients food aid seminar
Dairy ingredients could be the key to effective, affordable foods for moderately malnourished children, according to studies presented by international food aid specialists at the first Arla Foods Ingredients food aid seminar. But further research is necessary to determine the precise nutritional impact of diary ingredients in convenient food aid products. To ensure their affordability, research also needs to identify the minimum dairy dose capable of improving the health status of children in hunger-hit regions.
The growth and development of 165 million children globally is stunted by nutrient deficiency.

Interdisciplinary knowledge exchange
Some of the world’s leading food aid specialists from academia, business and NGOs attended the seminar in Denmark, where the latest knowledge was exchanged about formulating food aid products that satisfy the new nutrition guidelines published by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2012.
Speakers included Dr Mark Manary, professor of paediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine and founder of Project Peanut Butter, which serves hundreds of thousands of malnourished children in Africa.
Dr Manary welcomed the seminar as an important industry-driven initiative.
“Through this seminar, Arla Foods Ingredients gives people like me a chance to interact with people who know a lot about food. We have important knowledge to share with each other,” he says.


Promising studies with whey
Food aid is a relatively new focus area for Arla Foods Ingredients.  Particularly studies led by Dr Manary and Dr Kim Michaelsen from Copenhagen University have drawn the company’s attention through their investigation of two Arla Foods Ingredients products: whey permeate and whey protein concentrate.
Preliminary findings from a Project Peanut Butter clinical study underway in Malawi, for example, indicate that ready-to-eat supplementary food made with whey permeate and whey protein concentrate speeds up recovery from moderate malnutrition in children aged 6 to 59 months.
“This work has raised our awareness of how we can contribute to the development of next-generation supplementary foods designed to overcome childhood malnutrition,” says Henrik Andersen, Arla Foods Ingredients CEO.

Presentations online
Speakers at the seminar represented Project Peanut Butter, Copenhagen University, US Dairy Export Council, Swiss humanitarian think tank Sight & Life, and Arla Foods. Their presentations are available for viewing at http://www.arlafoodsingredients.com/FoodAid
Arla Foods Ingredient plans to make the seminar a regularly returning event.
For more information, contact charlotte.sorensen@arlafoods.

Topics

  • Groceries, Food engineering

Categories

  • whey protein
  • lactose
  • food aid

Arla Foods Ingredients Group P/S is a 100% owned subsidiary of Arla Foods, a global dairy company and cooperative owned by dairy farmers from Danmark, Sweden, The UK, Germany, Belgium and Luxemburg..Arla Foods Ingredients develops proteins, derived from natural milk whey, for use in a wide range of nutritional applications. Arla Foods Ingredients operates in four business areas:Bakery, Functional Milk Proteins, Nutrition, Lactose & Permeate. For the bakery and the functional milk proteins business, Arla Foods Ingredients runs two main application centres, located in Argentina and Denmark. The centres are used for both research and product trials. Arla Foods Ingredients also produces a range of lactose products and permeate powder for food. At present, Arla Foods Ingredients have one plant in Denmark and a plant in Argentina. Arla Foods Ingredients have a 50% share in Biolac a plant in Germany and a joint venture company ArNoCo GmbH & Co. KG. with DMK.