Arla Foods Ingredients develops tasteless protein enrichment solution for clear juices
15 Apr 2021 | Arla Foods Ingredients
Arla Foods Ingredients is exploring new solutions that help guide protein enrichment when branching out into functional beverages. The company has launched Lacprodan ISO. Clear, which is a tasteless solution for clear juices. The ingredient can be incorporated easily into juice-producing processes for an added protein punch in health drinks.
This is Benjamin Ferreir on behalf of Food Ingredients First.
I'm joined here today by Trolls Norgaard Larson, Director of Health and Performance nutrition at Arla Foods Ingredients, here to speak to us about the company's protein enrichment strategies.
Charles, what are some of the trends that you're noticing in the protein enriched fruit drink space, and what is the growth in demand here?
We're seeing, we're seeing several trends.
We're seeing, a clear trend about, protein going mainstream, and we see that, both from the food industry approaching, this trend with, with protein enrichment.
We see it with nutrition, Nutrition companies moving mainstream into traditional mainstream sales channels, And we clearly see a space where there's a big demand for a convenient, -tasting, intuitive, nutritional products.
And especially a focus on on functional beverages where components are added to, to increase the nutritional profile of of, of the beverages.
And this is a space where we see a very impressive, growth rates, and we see a lot of our customers, really eager to, to innovate in this space.
And what are some of the functionalities of lac lacrodan isoclear, and what, what about its color and, and flavor make it ideal for food drinks?
Yeah, so this, black banana isocle is something we developed for protein enrichment of, of juice products.
So we have, we have juice products that have traditionally had a, a health halo around them with the, the naturally healthy, but we've seen a more increased focus on, , concern about the, the, the, the sugar contents of, of juice products.
So we're seeing more and more , attempts of functional juice products where you have protein enrichment.
The protein enrichment we have seen in the market so far have, created, a cloudy, more smoothie-like, juice product.
So, so this, new innovation is, is a solution where you cannot taste the protein.
And you can have very clear juice products.
So it looks exactly like juice and it tastes like juice, but you have the nutritional enrichment, with, very nutritional whey proteins in the juice.
So that's what, what this, new innovation is all about, creating, a -tasting nutritional, , benefits, and, and creating a great opportunity for, for juice companies.
So I noticed it's very interesting because it looks very similar to apple juice in terms of its color.
So this is, what are some of the processes?
This is an apple juice, enriched with, with, 6% whey protein, and, you can't tell that there's any protein in it and you can't taste it.
So it's, it's a very amazing innovation.
Very interesting.
What are some of the processing methods that are used when producing juice with this ingredient?
Actually, the, the component is developed so it can fit right into the existing manufacturing processes of juice today.
So some of the, the traditional ways of, pasteurizing juice, , can be used, so you can add, add the protein, to the juice and then use your, your traditional, , manufacturing process.
So you don't need to go out of your way to, to add any additional steps in the process.
And how has the target demographic for these protein enriched foods and beverages er evolved or diversified over the years?
I, I started by mentioning, that, that a lot of these functional beverages and, and this protein trend is going mainstream.
So it, it is actually very broad.
You can say a protein enriched juice could be suited for, for a breakfast, , where you get, your nutritional, proteins as part of the breakfast and a more even distribution of protein during the day.
It can be people looking for, for protein supplement during the day, either for Weight management or an on the go snack.
It can even be a very nutritional products for kids, so it can also be a nutritional supplement for, for senior nutrition.
So there's a lot of, there's a lot of opportunities, with a very intuitive, simple, -tasting, and convenient, protein enriched functional beverage.
So you listed some examples there.
What would you say are the most, popular applications among the unique formats that are being enriched with, protein on the market at the moment?
We are seeing a lot of different, protein enriched products from, From, from gummies to, cookies, protein chips, Of course, beverages, bars, so there's a lot of examples out there, and a lot of them being, being, received very positively by, by consumers.
So there's a, there's definitely a lot of innovation going on, with, with protein enriched formats.
I think we're very lucky that That That that protein in general, the knowledge about that component is increasing significantly.
And, and received very by consumers.
Thank you very much for your insights, Jules.
Thank you, Benjamin.
