The innovator stays innovative

New research strategy aims to keep Arla Foods Ingredients ahead

Highly functional caseins, whey proteins, phospholipids and other bioactive whey components are in the research pipeline at Arla Foods Ingredients, where major investments are bolstering a new research strategy.

“Customer expectations are always growing with regard to the functionality of our ingredients and documentation of nutritional effects,” says Kristian Albertsen, head of innovation. “The strategy puts even more focus on this, along with the big demand for cost optimisation.”

Reinforced focus
Research investments throughout the Arla Foods group are being upped by more than 30% to stay ahead of customer demands. For Arla Foods Ingredients, which represents a big part of total research activities, this will bring additional competences to the innovation team and reinforce important focus areas: process development and control, functionality and well-being.
Many research activities already target health and well-being through nutrition. Over many years, Arla Foods Ingredients has established a strong cooperative relationship with leading universities in Denmark and abroad to investigate bioactive whey components.

Bioactive spin-offs
A three-year research consortium, backed by the Danish government, is just one programme where Arla Foods Ingredients has worked with academic and industrial partners. Spin-off projects from the consortium, such as studies of the bioactive effect of phospholipids, are among those targeted by the new research strategy.

”We have always concentrated a lot on whey proteins in our research. In the future, we will also spend more time on investigating the nutritional and functional properties of casein,” Kristian Albertsen adds”.

Process competences
Researching potential new ingredients also involves developing processes - work that is typically combined with the task of optimising a customer formulation. Here, the team’s key competences in separation technology, protein modification and process control play a leading role.

“We conduct a lot of in-house research in process development and control and work closely with industry on membranes for use in separation,” says Kristian Albertsen. “These efforts are now being intensified further.”

Arla Foods Ingredients has a long-held reputation as a pioneer in the world of whey-based ingredients. With the new research strategy, this status should remain intact.