Arla Food Ingredients explores why organic milk proteins are the future for dairy manufacturers

14 Aug 2020 --- The market for organic and wholesome foods is growing, pushing production demand for organic food products with a healthy nutritional profile. This is prevalent in the organic milk proteins space, where Arla Food Ingredients spots a gap in the market. Ahead of a webinar further detailing Arla’s portfolio, two executives speak with FoodIngredientsFirst about a new line of organic Nutrilac milk proteins and opportunities in this space.

“Arla Foods is the leading dairy company in the market when it comes to organic, therefore it was a natural step for Arla Foods Ingredients to invest in utilizing the largest organic milk pool in the world, to initiate the production of specialized organic milk proteins. Based on many years of experience from our production sites, our skilled engineers have been able to realize a new line of production where we only use filtration techniques, meaning we have no addition of acid or enzymes,” explains Claus Bukbjerg Andersen, Senior Category Manager Cheese Application at Arla Foods Ingredients. 

Arla’s new ingredients will be available from 2021. Meanwhile, the team is currently running pilots with its customers.

During the forthcoming webinar, Anderson and his colleague, Torben Jensen, Category Manager FDP Application, will detail the new organic cheese and yogurt solutions and how they help manufacturers overcome various production challenges. 

The organic milk proteins are optimal for the use in cheese products; cooking stable cheeses (perfect for meat substitution), children’s cheese snacks, cheese slices, processed cheese and mascarpone and fresh cheese.

In fresh dairy products, applications include stirred yogurt, Greek-style yogurt, drinking yogurt, set yogurt and fermented milk desserts, while they are optimal in protein-rich ice cream as well. 

“In these applications, our new line of organic Nutrilac milk proteins is able both to give the products an optimal stability, quality, taste and mouthfeel, in combination with the option to go high in protein and offer a low sodium level in all of the cheese types,” continues Andersen. 

“On top of that, we have combined these new offerings with our general focus on high yield and low waste – meaning that, for example, the cooking cheeses, mascarpone, Greek-style yogurts and the fermented milk desserts can be produced with 100 percent yield and no whey straining at all,” he notes. 

Tapping into the growing organic market 
The company has more than 30 years of experience in creating high-quality dairy products using milk and whey proteins in combination with its customers’ raw materials and production facilities, notes Jensen.

“We have more than 40 skilled experts in application, ready to give advice, but also bring the suggestions to live in our application centers – in close cooperation with our customers,” he says. “This puts us in a perfect place to bring these new organic solutions into play almost wherever there should be a need to create natural healthy organic milk products.” 

Arla’s new ingredients will be available from 2021. However, the team is currently running pilots with its existing customers. “We have already initiated a significant production of start-up volumes of the solutions, so we have been able to support both pilot-scale testing as well as minor production scale ups, with all the applications,” Andersen adds. 

By Gaynor Selby