Nutrition solutions for healthy aging: Physical health & cognitive function
19 May 2026 | Agropur
This science-driven webinar explores how targeted nutrition can support the evolving health needs of an aging population. Join industry experts as they discuss the role of advanced whey protein ingredients, including whey protein isolate, alpha-lactalbumin, glycomacropeptide, and other functional whey components, in supporting key aspects of healthy aging.
Learn how these ingredients contribute to physical and cognitive health, including cardiovascular and metabolic health, cognitive function, sleep health, and gut health.
The session will highlight emerging research behind these functional ingredients and their relevance across the aging lifecycle. Together, we will explore how this research can be translated into practical, evidence-based nutrition strategies aimed at maintaining strength, resilience, and overall wellbeing in the aging population.
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Good morning, good afternoon, or perhaps good evening, depending on where today's listeners are tuning in from.
Welcome to today's webinar hosted by Food Ingredients First.
I'm Elizabeth Green, a senior journalist at CNS Media, which is also the publisher of The World of Food Ingredients.
Today, I am delighted to guide you through this webinar brought to you by AgroPure.
Now before we dive in, here are just a few quick housekeeping notes for the audience.
A Q&A session will follow today's presentation, providing listeners with the opportunity to explore key topics in more depth.
I'll be leading this Q&A session with our experts, and if we don't get to your question live, we'll be following up via email after the broadcast.
The webinar will also be on demand on Food ingredientsfirst.com in just a few days, so you can catch up on or revisit any details.
So today's science-driven webinar from AgroPure will explore how targeted nutrition can support the evolving needs of an aging population.
Our industry experts will discuss the role of advanced whey protein ingredients, including whey protein isolates, lactoferrrin, and other functional whey components in supporting healthy aging.
Our audience will learn how these ingredients contribute to physical and cognitive health, including cardiovascular and metabolic health, brain function, sleep and immune health.
The session will also highlight research behind these functional ingredients and their relevance across the aging life cycle.
This research can be translated into practical, evidence-based nutrition strategies aimed at developing functional F&B products for the aging population.
So with that, let's introduce our speakers.
Today we will hear from Maggie Gia, technical support scientist at AgroPure.
Maggie supports global ingredient innovation and marketing solutions while co-managing AgroPure's research programs and regulatory affairs.
Maggie holds a PhD in genetics from the Pennsylvania State University and an MS degree in protein biochemistry from the University of Minnesota.
Next, we will hear from Amy O'Keefe, an application scientist at the company.
Amy has been in this role for over 5 years, supporting the business through functional analysis of weight ingredients and technical conversations with customers on formulation and nutritional benefits.
She holds an MS degree in food science from the University of Minnesota, and she is also a registered dietitian.
So with introductions complete, I will hand it over to Maggie.
Thanks, Maggie, over to you.
Thank you, Elizabeth.
Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening.
Thank you for taking your precious time of the day to attend this webinar brought to you by Innovation Center of Agro-Pure Ingredients.
Today, we'll talk to you about nutrition solutions for healthy aging, especially concerning physical health and cognitive function with whey ingredients as a solution.
First of all, I would like to take a quick minute to introduce you to our company Agripure.
Agripure is a top 20 global dairy producer in one of North America's largest whey protein manufacturers.
We have 29 plants across Canada and USA.
Agripure works with some of the most prominent brands in food, beverage, and nutrition across the globe.
For today's agenda, we will talk to you a little bit about market and consumer insights on healthy aging, and then we'll present some health challenges related to healthy aging and provide some science-backed ingredient solutions.
At the end of the presentation, my co-worker Amy will also present on some prototypes and product development ideas.
All right, let's take a look at healthy aging in the market.
So unless you're Benjamin Button, from day one of your birth, we're all aging every day.
Yes, 100% of the population is aging.
My daughter just turned 6 and she's been counting down to her birthday for a long time.
As kids are very eager to age.
However, I don't remember the last time that I counted down to my own birthday.
So that subtle transition of concerning aging being a top, very sensitive topic, happens around 30 to 40 years old.
And that is not, without, that is not without Evidence.
So Harvard Health actually pointed out that at the age of 35, we can start to have muscle loss at 1 to 2%, a very slow rate to begin with, and it really accelerates when we turn 50 or 60 years old.
Let's take a look at aging at our society level.
According to World Health Organization, By 2030, which is in four years, 1 in 6 people will be older than 60 years old.
And by 2050, the global population of people older than 60 years old will double.
And this is only to count people who are 60 and above.
Many other people start to focus on aging at a very young age.
I want to take a look at.
What aging looks like on a consumer insights.
Let's take a look at, some in Nova surveys.
On the consumer demand side, we can see that 68% of all consumers, noting this is not just the aging population, but all consumers say that healthy aging is important to them.
And on the product development side, we can see that there is a 9% compound annual growth rate or taker of new functional food launches with a healthy aging claim.
So that's exciting to see the growth rate being very high for healthy aging launches.
And that's zoom in on the ingredient.
What are people using for ingredients?
Specifically, there is 41% keger of healthy aging functional food launches with dairy ingredients specifically.
So this tells me that the product development for healthy aging is on the rise, and there is a lot of emphasis on using dairy ingredients.
So let's take a look at some health challenges in the next section for the aging population.
Some of these challenges include muscle health and bone health, chronic conditions, cognitive function and mood and mind health, sleep health, and immunity.
As we want to show you how dairy ingredients can help your product development.
We want to show you that dairy ingredients can help address some of these specific health challenges.
Before I dive into each and different health challenges, I would like to take a quick minute to explain to you what is whey protein and whey ingredients, as some of you might not be very familiar.
So whey protein or natural proteins exist in all milk, including human and animal milks.
Now, specifically in bovine milk, there is 3.3% of protein in the liquid milk.
And as processors work to purify that protein out, by either cheese-making or filtration, 80% of that protein locks into casing protein in either cheese or liquids, as MCI.
And 20% of that protein is whey protein.
And as a co-product of cheese making, whey protein.
Consist of many proteins in the profile.
So when we talk about whey protein, in general, we're not talking about one protein, but it includes beta-lactoglobulin, glyco macropeptide, alpha-lactalbumin, immunoglobulins, BSA, and other minor proteins such as lactoferrrin.
And they all exist in different percentage in the whey protein.
As wave protein processors work to purify the protein, including ergo pure, we use separation technologies such as ion exchange or mammbrane filtration.
And from those technology, we further purify and concentrate the proteins into whey ingredients, which includes whey protein isolate, which has more than 90% of the protein in the ingredient, whey protein concentrate that contains anywhere from 34 to 89% of protein in the ingredient.
And there's also an ingredient called MFGM or whey.
Milk fat globule membrane or whey protein phospholipids concentrate, WPPC.
So these contain very beneficial polar lipids, from milk.
And there's also bioactive fractions from way that some processors will isolate out, including jagopir.
For example, there is alpha-lactalbumin, glycomicropeptide, and lactoferrrin.
And these are all very beneficial in the healthy aging product development as we will go into some details with you.
Now, let's take a quick look at muscle and bone health first.
10% of the population actually suffers sarcopenia, which is the loss of muscle mass and performance with aging.
As you can see, shown on the left here are some muscle tissues.
On the very left, you can see a healthy muscle tissue.
And on the middle part, you can see the muscles start to deteriorate and you see the loss of muscle mass and also there is a decreased size volume of total muscle fibers and also decreased motor neurons as.
Same with bone.
As we age.
Our bones start to lose that mineralization.
So there is reduced bone remineralization, which is called osteopenia.
And when that progresses into osteoporosis, which is showing compared to the healthy bone on the left, showing here was a less bone density.
And that is a condition called osteoporosis, which leads to fragile bones that's easier to break.
Both muscle and bone.
Deterioration can lead to decreased mobility, increased risk of falls and fractures, and also decreased independence.
Now, we're trying to show you how whey protein can be a conjunctive therapy for the musculoskeletal health.
Some of the clinical evidence we're showing here suggests that 20 to 40 g whey protein per meal can boost muscle protein synthesis.
Whey is rich in lucin, and it's very rapidly and completely digested and absorbed.
Resistant exercise can also compound the effect.
So these all show us that whey protein can help to prevent sarcomenia.
And I want to point out that the clinical evidence is based on a mega meta-analysis, which includes many clinical trials and showing a significant effect.
On the bone health side.
There is also a meta-analysis with many clinical evidence suggesting that milk and whey protein supplementation can benefit bone density.
Also, there's individual studies that points out whey-derived peptides can enhance calcium bioavailability and other healthy biomarkers for bone.
And there's a study on lactoferrron peptides that's associated with osteogenesis to give you a healthier bone.
So those are some of the evidence we have seen in the research world on how whey protein can be a conjunctive therapy for musculoskeletal health.
Next topic we want to address for healthy aging is chronic conditions.
As we all know, many aging population, face chronic conditions.
Here, we're showing a Center of Disease Control report on trends in multiple chronic conditions among US adults.
On the graph, you can see the Y axis is the percentage of population dealing with chronic conditions.
On the left side of the graph, we're showing population percentage that deal with at least one chronic condition.
As you can see, for all adults that is 18 and above, there is more than 70% of people suffering at least one chronic condition.
And for the aging population, for anyone who is older than 65 years old, it's 90% of that population that struggles with at least one chronic condition.
And on the right.
This is showing the population percentage that is struggling with at least 2 chronic conditions.
And as you can see, for the 65 years and older, there's close to 80% of that population struggling multiple, with multiple chronic conditions.
And among the multiple chronic conditions, some of the most prevalent chronic conditions that aging population faces are high cholesterol level, hypertension, Type 2 diabetes.
And also there's arthritis and obesity, that's among the top ones.
Now, I want to show you some scientific evidence that shows that whey protein isolate or whey protein concentrate can benefit in cardiovascular health.
So here, I'm showing two combined meta-analysis of 34 clinical trials involving over 2000 people in the trials.
And they concluded that whey protein intake can significantly reduce LDL cholesterol, total cholesterol, systolic blood pressure, and they can also conditionally reduce diastolic blood pressure and triglycerides.
If you're interested in the research, feel free to check out, the reference on the bottom.
They have some very interesting results.
And the action items, I won't go into too much detail, but peptides from whey protein and amino acid from certain whey protein and sphingolipids, which is a polar lipid from the, the whey protein phospholipid concentrate, can all help in cardiovascular health.
After talking about cardiovascular health, let's take a look at metabolic health in chronic conditions.
I want to show you how our regular glucose control work first.
After food intake, our bloodstream glucose level will increase.
And that increase will lead to the release of gut hormones such as GLP1 and GIP showing here in green and blue molecules.
And those molecules.
Not only slows, for example, GLP1 will slow the gastric emptying and also send, it will send signal to our brain for a satiety or tell our brain that we're full.
They also can induce insulin release from pancreas.
Showing an orange molecule here.
And the ins and they also then will get degraded after their signals are done.
And the insulin then works to reduce blood glucose by Having the cells and muscle and other organs to take up glucose from the bloodstream.
So this is how glucose control works in normally.
But in diabetes patients, especially type 2 diabetes, as they've struggle with insulin resistance, your body cell does not respond to insulin very and won't take up the blood glucose that's in the bloodstream.
And that would result in higher postprandial glucose level as the glucose remain in the bloodstream.
Now, I will show you some clinical evidence suggesting whey protein can reduce postprandial glucose level in type 2 diabetes.
As we see the action item, mechanism here.
The research has shown that.
Intake of whey protein from 10 clinical trials significantly increases insulin, GIP and GLP-1 response.
So this whole pathway of turning on GLP-1 and GIP production and inducing insulin and then come back to regulate glucose level in bloodstream is being increased after whey protein consumption.
And the result of that is reduced postprandial blood glucose in type 2 diabetes patients.
Some of the way that whey protein helps in this sense is, whey protein has been shown to help, postpone degradation of GLP1 and also helps our, muscle cell to take up extra glucose that's in the bloodstream.
So that's all we have for chronic conditions.
Let's now dive in into cognitive function and mood and mind health, as these are just as important as our physical conditions.
As we know, aging comes with some cognitive decline, including memory loss, mild cognitive impairment, and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.
There are scientific evidence showing that brain antioxidant glutaion or GSH can prevent age-related cognitive decline.
And there's also pre-clinical and clinical trials with MFGM or WPPC that shows a beneficial effect on memory, recall time, and also promising Alzheimer's support.
So let's take a look at how ingredients from whey protein can help on this cognitive decline realm.
As I mentioned, alpha-lactalbumin is rich in cystine, which boosts brain glutacion that can help prevent cognitive decline.
And there's also evidence showing polar lipids can help with, as I mentioned, cognitive decline.
And the reason is actually polar lipids make up more than 50% dry matter of our brain.
And there's also evidence showing lactoferin can counteract oxidation and inflammation associated with neurodegeneration.
Next, we want to focus on mental health.
As aging population not only deal with cognitive decline, they are often go undiagnosed with depression, anxiety, and social isolation.
Such are due to physical health issues or social or retirement or loss of the loved ones.
From Whey ingredient, what we can offer is again, alpha-lalbumin, not only high in cystin, is also high in tryptophan.
And tryptophan can boost serotonin production in the brain and lower cortisol levels.
The outcome of that is improved mood and better stress resilience.
Research also showed that milk fat globule membrane or MFGM when supplemented to aging population, can help reduce stress levels, anxiety, and also improve overall psychological health.
Now we wanna keep exploring sleep health and weight protein.
As we may know, sleep and aging are correlated.
There's lots of science, evidence showing that aging population deal with poor sleep quality, and that might be Due to some physical or mental conditions that the aging population is struggling.
However, poor sleep, in turn, will also cause some of the physical and mental conditions as people aging.
So that's why we have a circle there.
Oh, sorry.
And showing on the right here are some common ingredients used in sleep products, including hormones and hormone regulators, such as melatonin, tryptophan, and minerals including magnesium, amino acids, and neurotransmitters, including L-theanine, and some botanical and herbal extracts.
In the US, we, around Thanksgiving time, people talk about how, consuming turkey, which is high in tryptophan, can make you sleepy.
And we all know that tryptophan, is a precursor to melatonin, which is a sleep hormone.
So tryptophan, has been used, as I showed you in the last slide, as a supplement for sleep benefit.
Here, we're showing you a graph showing equivalent of tryptophan in 20 g of alpha-lalbumin with other foods, including turkey, eggs, rib eye steak, and other protein powders including soy protein islet, and the isoch 8000 is the WPC and the Bipro 9500 is a WPI.
And , and this is not just any alpha-lactalbumin.
This is a called a Bipro alpha 9000.
It's an ingredient that Egripure produces.
It is one of the highest purity alpha-lactalbomin on the market.
So that's why it, can provide a high concentration tryptophan.
Equivalent to 8 ounce of turkey thigh.
And 11 ounce of rib eye.
However, we do want to make a disclaimer that we're not saying one scoop of alpha 9000 is, will give the same effect of, of 11 ounce of rib eye.
As I will talk a little bit about the ratios between tryptophan and other large neutral amino acids because the whole amino acid profile of the protein actually matters for tryptophan production and melatonin production.
Here we're showing tryptophan is used to synthesize melatonin.
Using alpha-lactalbumin as an example, when that is consumed as a protein and broken down into small peptides and free amino acids, tryptophan is absorbed through the small intestine into the bloodstream.
And some free tryptophan crosses the blood-brain barrier to be used in brain for serotonin synthesis.
And this is where I was talking about the ratio of tryptophan to other large neutral amino acid is important because they share the same transporter through the brain.
So, having a large tryptophan to other large neutral amino acid ratio is very important to allow more tryptophan go into the brain.
The neurotransmitter serotonin is then synthesized in the brain using tryptophan, and in the absence of light, serotonin is converted to sleep regulating hormone, melatonin.
So this is how tryptophan help to synthesize melatonin.
And actually, there's been research showing that griurous alpha-lalbumin in high purity can actually boost that ratio of tryptophan to other large neutral amino acid by 50 to 130%.
So with that, several clinical studies have suggested alpha-lact Talbumin's role in improved sleep parameters, including increased total sleep time, increased sleep efficiency, time to fall asleep, is decreased, and also decreased waking episodes.
Consequently, researchers have demonstrated, alpha-lactalbumin supplement can decrease sleepiness and increase morning alertness, and these might do to a better sleep quality at night.
Currently, AgroPyre is supporting an alpha-lactalbumin and sleep research in competitive female rugby athletes in Australia.
So more to come on that.
The last but not least, we want to talk a little bit about immune health as with whey ingredients.
As you might know, both whey protein and its bioactive ingredients have been associated with immune modulation in science.
The first ingredient I'll touch on is lactoferon.
This review paper shown lactoferon acting on, being associated to different immune modulation, including antimicrobial properties, antiviral properties, and anti-fungal properties.
There's also a very new research that just came out in 2026.
And they, it's a clinical trial that found whey protein supplementation can actually help immune response in older generation, or sorry, in older adults.
And it is used through positively modulating lung function.
In the past, we've also seen research showing that glycol macropeptide, a , Peptide, in the waste stream can reduce intestinaleppolitical cell barrier dysfunction and also help defend some pathogenic, bacteria such as E.
Coli.
And this has been done in vitro.
Currently, there are clinical trials going on looking to use alpha-lactalbumin as a vaccine ingredient in triple negative breast cancer, which is a very progressive breast cancer with not very many other treatments available.
So we're very excited to see more coming from the science world of on how whey protein can help with immune modulation.
With that, we have today presented to you many research and clinical trials that shows dairy ingredients are truly science-backed solution for healthy aging product development, not only for its nutrition, but also bioactivity.
So, for the rest of the sem webinar, my co-worker Amy will talk from a functionality and product development point of view to show you how whey protein ingredients are your ideal ingredients for your next innovation.
Thank you.
Hand it over to Amy.
Thank you so much, Maggie, for going through all of the science with us.
Clearly there is an abundance of science behind whey ingredients and whey or milk protein and whey protein bioactives for healthy aging.
It's also impressive to see how many different areas of healthy aging you can touch with, with dairy from Immune health, to muscle and bone health, etc.
And we didn't even go through all of the effects today, you know, we go beyond to, to even gut health.
So it's very impressive.
And so the question becomes how do we translate that science to product development?
There is somewhat of a lag between all of this science we have.
Regarding dairy ingredients and dairy bioactives and what's on the market.
The market features the same products and, and just anecdotally, I know that the aging folks in my life tend to go for those same high protein, ready to drink beverages or the shakes, occasionally a protein bar here and there.
And even we know that as we age, sometimes we like to stick to a routine.
We want to follow the same route through the grocery store and, and go to the same places in the grocery store.
So our exposure is also limited when it comes to what, what products are visible to us on the market.
So, We want to kind of fill that gap, and I think there's a big opportunity for product developers, marketers, and just companies in general, whether it's an ingredient company or a CPG company, to be creative and find ways to incorporate that science and those unique dairy ingredients into these new products with targeting specifically those aging concerns.
So let's start with looking at what's out on the market.
Again, first glance, you see a lot of ready to mix powders.
A lot of these are very milk-based, whether it's milk protein isolate or skim milk powders.
Several have soy protein isolate.
And then you do also see Some ready to drink shakes, ready to drink beverages of different sorts.
Some are very, very common brands that you might be aware of.
And then there are some like this Lucille brand here on the bottom right, the complete nutrition shake that was specifically developed to target healthy aging.
But if we just look collectively, again, we're noticing some common themes here.
Let me just So first and foremost, we're noticing that the formats are very common.
So I mentioned the, the ready to mix beverages and, and the ready, ready to drink beverages and shakes.
They're also using very familiar ingredients, and familiarity is not necessarily a bad thing.
I think we, we become creatures of habit and we We pick out what we like and we know we like.
But those are complete proteins often and then often they're adding vitamins and minerals to fortify their nutrition, perhaps at a doctor's or a dietitian's request to look for those additional nutrients as as some added fiber in there.
And then we're also seeing some added fiber in there to boost digestive health and, and gut health as.
And then the other thing that we see across the board is very simple flavors.
Again, creatures of habit, simple flavors, maybe people don't like things as sweet as they age, so chocolates, vanillas, maybe even unflavored products or just that simple fortified milk powder.
Etc.
So those are very common familiar things across the board, but we are seeing some new developments and some branching out with new and creative products.
On the far left here, we see a product that's available in Spain, and that is a ready to mix latte beverage.
And that features some, some medicinal compounds, some bioactive mushrooms, as as some other complete protein to boost health and longevity.
In the middle, we have a protein bar that's specifically targeted toward aging, and this one.
Is actually available in the US.
The Novo salted Chocolate Crunch longevity bar.
And this one also features several mushroom species as as some plant protein.
And then another ingredient that we see sometimes with these healthy aging products is, is taurine.
So that is in this product as.
And this one is also designed to target cognitive health, better sleep, a whole slew of things related to healthy aging.
And then on the right we see a gummy, so a new product format that we may not have seen yet with with healthy aging, and this one features a specific fatty acid called pentadeconoic acid, and that one has a lot of evidence around cognitive health, particularly related to aging.
So we are seeing New and creative product development in the space, but there is plenty of room to innovate.
And when I say innovate, that means diverse product formats, you know, we see some of those here with gummies and bars and, and ready to mix lattes, etc.
But there's so many other areas that we can touch while still recognizing that the aging populations likes their familiar products.
We can be creative and branch out just a little bit.
We can also introduce new ingredients, some science-backed dairy bioactives, all of the ingredients that Maggie went through today and more, and we can find ways to introduce those and also educate the consumer about what those do for the consumer.
They may not know what, what those ingredients in their product do, and oftentimes, those products that they're purchasing are simply designed to boost protein.
They're not necessarily targeting a specific aging concern.
So that's the next space that we can innovate into is saying how can we target this product specifically toward these aging concerns, so the consumer is aware of what the product is going to do for them.
So, a lot of room for us to be creative and innovate in this space.
So with that, I want to go through some different products that at Agerpeer we have created to exemplify how we can use dairy bioactives in different product formats.
This first product here is a fortified orange juice with whey protein isolate.
We've also made it with alpha-lactalin, and this product is designed to target immunity and muscle health.
So of course, as, as Maggie has mentioned, whey protein in general is very good for immunity as as for muscle health.
As an alpha-lactalbumin, she just touched on in the, in the previous slide about its relationship with immunity as.
Whey proteins in general really thrive in this acidic environment.
So functionally, they're going to withstand heat treatment really.
They're going to have great clarity, and they're going to be very soluble.
So in certain juices where clarity might be of concern, these ingredients are going to do really.
And from a kind of behavioral point of a lot of people have orange juice in the morning, so it is already a very familiar product, and this is just a way to creatively take something that's familiar and add a little boost to it.
And we're doing that with these ingredients.
Edger Per does manufacture whey protein isolates under a couple of different names, isochil.
9000 as as Bro 9500 that are prepared using different manufacturing methods and have different purity levels.
And we also do make a very high purity alpha-lactalbumin ingredient, ingredient under the name Bipro alpha 9000 that is very high purity, as I mentioned.
So that's one of the products that I wanted to go through.
Let's hop to the next one.
So this next product, again, a very familiar product that many people aging, young alike are already consuming, already purchasing in the grocery store, and that's yogurt, whether it's drinkable yogurt or cupset yogurt.
It's a familiar product that we're used to seeing and used to consuming.
But again, there's room to be creative and, and boost it so that we can address some additional healthy aging concerns.
And so when we think of yogurt, a lot of times people are consuming it for the Protein for the calcium.
They might think of gut health, but they might also want to boost their immunity and their bone health.
And so here we've designed this yogurt with some additional whey bioactives to target immunity and bone health, especially.
The first ingredient that we can use is lactoferrin, and this ingredient we sell through a relationship with Provaco in Australia, and it's under the name Ferrirolactoferi.
And we do have evidence that highly links lactoferrrin to immunity as as bone health and promoting the proliferation and the differentiation of those osteoblasts or those cells that are going to help build bone mass.
So lactoferrrin can target both of those.
And lactoferrrin is typically used in Pretty low use rates.
So you can fortify these products without worrying about compromising functionality in any way.
So usually you're thinking between 100 and 500 mg.
So it's easy to fortify a product like a drinkable yogurt.
And in fact there are a couple of drinkable yogurt products out there on the market.
And then glyco macro peptide, a very functional peptide that Maggie has referenced as , and we do sell this at Agrap and manufacture it under the name Bipro GMP 9000.
And this is also a very functional peptide that also has associations with both immunity and bone health.
And so both of these are very functional in a drinkable yogurt and can withstand the processing conditions designed to create that product.
The next product we can jump into.
I, or three products I should say, a trifecta of sleep health products.
So all three of these are made with alpha lactalbumin or under the name Biproal Alpha 9000 from Agrip, and they're again kind of some unique product formats, but they boost.
Sleep health with the help from alpha-lactalin.
So on the left, we have our own version of a fortified gummy, and this is a sleep health gummy that is in a tart cherry flavor.
So tart cherry being another one of those kind of botanical ingredients that's associated with good, good sleep health.
In the middle, we have a nighttime sleepytime tea that's in a milky chamomile flavor featuring 9 g of protein.
And this, this kind of speaks to that nighttime routine of you have your nice hot tea before bed, but why not add a little sleep help from, from alpha-lactalbumin.
And then on the right we have a sleep shot and alpha-lactalin.
Does very in, with heat treatment and functionally very in ready to drink formats.
So it, it does work in a, in a sleep shot format.
And the reason it's in more of a concentrated format here is perhaps we don't want to drink too much liquid right before bed.
So this is a good concentrated way to get some of that nutritional help from alpha-lactabamin and that, and that sleep boost right before we go to bed.
Moving on to cognitive and mood and mind health prototypes.
So when we think of cognitive and mood and mind health, often we're thinking of those that good dairy fat, those good whey phospholipids, and those can come from a variety of sources.
I've, I've listed some here that grip manufacturers, including our Iochil.
6000, which is a whey protein phospholipid concentrate.
We also have a whey protein concentrate 34% that is higher in fat, that is consequently higher in phospholipids, and we do have a Creo buttermilk powder that's also higher in phospholipids.
And Maggie also mentioned regarding that tryptophan pathway, how alpha-lactalbumin can also help in, in mood and mind health and cognitive health as.
So we can utilize all of these in different prototypes, and on the left, I'm showing 3 different concepts.
The far left product is not necessarily one that we've developed here at Agriper, but I did want to show it because it is kind of a cool concept that I'm seeing more pop up.
In not just use for toddlers and in the younger crowd, but more people in middle age and even older age as a concentrated way of getting nutrition, especially among GLP-1 users who need to get nutrition in a concentrated format, pouches are becoming more popular.
But also as we think of aging and maybe more swallowing difficulties, a thicker, a thicker fluid, like what you might find in a pouch is a great way to get some, some fluid needs met as , along with some protein.
And this product on the left is actually, so again, while it's targeted toward younger children, I think that product developers, we can market it toward a whole another population as a creative opportunity, but this one has a few different ingredients specifically for, for cognitive development.
And that would be the MFGM or the milk fat globular membrane.
It also features choline and mineral that's involved in cognitive health, and we do know that our, our phospholipid rich ingredients are very rich in, in choline as.
So that's a neat format to keep in mind that I do think has , a lot of potential.
And then the two on the right are prototypes that we have developed at Edger Pier and are some new and fun formats to consider.
In the middle, we have a fortified mug cake that features Creo buttermilk powder or a phospholipid rich ingredient for, for cognitive benefits.
So it's kind of a fun way to get indulgence.
Or that healthy indulgence right before bed with those phospholipids.
And then again, on the far right, we have another fun concept, and that is a fortified pudding with isochil 6000 or that whey protein phospholipid concentrate for, for more phospholipids designed to target cognitive and mood and mind health.
So with that, we have a lot of ideas that we've presented to you and of course our, our team is ready to support you if you have any further questions on the ingredients, dairy bioactives, or different formulas that we can, we can help support with, and we want to thank you so much for attending and for your, your attention today and we would love to field any questions you might have.
OK, thank you to Maggie and Amy for your presentations.
This is Elizabeth Green from Food Ingredients First, joining for a short Q&A session with our listeners and speakers.
Just before we dive in, I'd like to take a moment to tell our listeners we are, we are aware of a lag on certain slides during the presentation.
And if you need more information on citation or weigh ingredient names, please feel free to drop it in the Q&A box, and we will email you the information after the presentation.
So let's begin the Q&A.
Some great questions have already been submitted by our audience, so thank you in advance.
Our first question is for Maggie.
So Maggie, the question is, what is the dosage level recommended for alpha-lactalbumin and MFGM to show benefits in stress relief and improved mood?
Maggie, over to you.
Thank you, Liz.
Yeah, I can take, I, I'm happy to take the question.
So, when we talk about dosage for specific health benefits, we should make the disclaimer that we're simply citing, what the research trials have concluded.
So for the alpha-elect Tin related to, stress relief, we , cited a research that was led by CR Marcus and they were looking at a diet based on 20 g of alpha-lactalbumin enriched whey protein.
So note this is not gram of alpha but 20 g of total ingredients and I think it, that ingredient contained 30 to 40% of alpha-la and they compared it with 20 g of casing casing diet.
And they observed a significant increase of tryptophan to large neutral amino acid ratio in the plasma, for those who took alpha-elect diet.
So, if you remember that, in the slides that we mentioned that the higher ratio, of, tryptophan to LNAA is very important for that serotonin production in the brain.
So in stress-vulnerable, subjects, they actually, they were able to, who were on alpha-lac diet, they were able to solve decreased, cortisol level and reduced depressive feeling under stress.
So, actually, Egripure offers a higher purity alpha, that provides, about 3.9 times more tryptophan content compared to the ingredient that we used in that, that was used in that research.
So, this will help, make formulation a little easier, as you can use, a little bit less total ingredients, to obtain the same amount of the, bioactive alpha-lac.
And then actually the researcher, Marcus, they, they actually used, Egripur's high purity alpha ingredient, in, later in a sleep research, project, and they did show a much higher ratio of tryptophan to LNAA, in the plasma.
So that's just a little extra fact about that research.
And for the MFGM that's related to stress relief, we cited a research by Davis from 2023 and it was done using up to 6 600 mg, of, phospholipids actually from buttermilk.
And And it was a daily uptake, to, about 12 weeks and they did so in a significant lower stress scores, for treatment groups compared to the placebo group, after 12 weeks.
So those are what the research has shown and concluded for, the stress relief part with alpha-lactalbumin and MFGM.
OK, perfect, thank you very much, Maggie, very interesting answer.
OK, so our next question now is for Amy, and the listener says, as we age, we tend to stick to a routine and purchase familiar products.
How can product developers, developers create new products that aging consumers will want to buy?
Amy, I'll pass it over to you.
Yeah, thank you so much for that question.
So I would say that when it comes to routine, it's not so much about breaking that routine as using, excuse me, as using that routine as a basis to launch off of to elevate the nutrition of a product.
So we wanna make it personal.
What would our aging relatives actually purchase and enjoy eating?
What products are they currently buying in the grocery store and how can we formulate them in a way That both maintains the familiarity of the product while adding a nutritious twist.
For example, we mentioned the, the yogurt and the orange juice in the presentation.
Very familiar, commonly consumed products that are in frequented parts of the store with high exposure.
How can we modify those products to better target an aging concern with the addition of bioutrients?
Flavor-wise, maybe we create products that have more of a, more of a nostalgic appeal.
Marketing could also play a role in this, and it Increasing the product appeal by having specific targeted aging concerns potentially in front of pack.
So it's not just added protein, it's, it's cognitive health, it's muscle health, etc.
So again, being, making it personal, increasing exposure in parts that are already frequented, and, and really just elevating the existing routine of our, aging population.
OK, fantastic, Amy, thank you very much.
I think we have enough time for maybe one more question now.
So the final question, again, it's for you, Amy, and the question is, for consumers with lactose intolerance, is lactose content a concern with dairy bioactives?
What can you tell us about that, Amy?
That is a very valid question because when we think of dairy, many people also think of lactose and that could potentially be a concern for those who have lactose sensitivity or lactose intolerance.
So a valid question.
Ultimately, the lactose content is gonna depend on the exact manufacturing process of the ingredient, the specific ingredient, as as the final product.
So what other ingredients are, are in that product.
But when I'm speaking about gray's bioactives, specifically GMP and alpha-lactalum, those are very high purity.
Ingredients which are essentially lactose-free.
Lactoferrin, which is produced with from Provocco, that is also a lactose-free ingredient, as as Agrap's Bro 9500 whey protein isolate with very, very high purity and therefore, negligible content of, of lactose.
Again, ultimately, the CPG Manufacturer is going to need to guarantee that the lactose is minimal or below a certain content in their product, but these ingredients in particular, would not be of concern from, from that lens.
Additionally, you could consider lactose enzyme in those products to help reduce the lactose content.
Fantastic, thank you very much, Amy and Maggie, for your interesting insights there.
That's about all we have time for today, so thank you to everyone involved in today's webinar from Agro Pure, both behind the scenes and on the ground.
Now, before we sign off, I'd like to remind our listeners that any questions we didn't have time to answer today will be answered via email.
You can also keep up with the latest developments in industry news at food ingredientsfirst.com, where you can also sign up for our newsletters.
Thanks again for joining and goodbye.
Applications Scientist, Agropur
Senior Journalist, CNS Media
Technical Support Scientist, Agropur
Amy O'Keefe
Applications Scientist, Agropur
Elizabeth Green
Senior Journalist, CNS Media
Maggie Jia, PhD
Technical Support Scientist, Agropur
