Five minutes at FI Europe  with … 

Ramon Mommersteeg – Product Group Manager Whey Proteins

Agro Food Industry Hi-Tech: What are the latest innovations you present on whey protein?
Ramon Mommersteeg: Our latest innovation is the Nutri Whey Hydro which was developed to deliver on the promise that “The fast road to recovery should taste great”. Today we are addressing the needs of the elite athletes as well as the weekend warriors.  In fact main streaming is a key force behind the growth of the Performance Nutrition market today and is also contributing to a shift in the specific demands and characteristics required of protein ingredients targeting this market.
We see more and more people engaging in sports and becoming more serious about their performance and their results – sport is not just a social event anymore as many aim to achieve specific goals, such as a competition or a personal fitness goal. People also increasingly look to professional athletes for inspiration and are adopting their behaviours and training approaches including their nutrition regimes.
As a result of these drivers, the market is seeing an increase in demand for high quality and premium nutrition products, such as hydrolysed proteins. For enthusiasts practicing sports, it is paramount that a product tastes great. And also for professional athletes, it has its importance: a professional is likely to take a protein supplement every day, and can get quickly get tired of their products if the taste is sub-optimal. That’s exactly where the Nutri Whey hydro fits nicely in the market trends because of its excellent taste combined with its high nutritional value and fast uptake.

AF: How did you improve the taste?
RM: There are three main reasons why our Nutri Whey Hydro has a sensory advantage and better taste when compared to regular  hydrolysed whey proteins. First of all, the difference lies in the raw material sourced. Most whey proteins hydrolysates are made from whey originating from cheese manufacturing, which often have some background cheese notes and sensory variability showing up in the final protein product. For the Nutri Whey products, FrieslandCampina starts the process from fresh raw milk collected from local farmers, and we directly process our whey proteins into spray dried powder in our own milk processing factory. Our processing is really fast, so the product remains fresh. And since no cheese process is involved, the protein has a much more neutral and consistent taste. Secondly, the technology used is important – having recently adopted state-of-the-art ceramic microfiltration in the production process, we can secure consistent high quality and purity. Thirdly, when developing the hydrolyzation process our R&D team carefully selected an enzyme treatment which could deliver superior results in terms of taste.

AF: What quantitative results did you obtain on recovery?
RM: Over the years many studies have been performed around the benefits of hydrolysed proteins versus intact proteins. Research at FrieslandCampina have published numerous papers on the benefits of diary proteins in general muscle regeneration and recovery. Recently both science and consumers are increasingly interested in and acknowledging the benefits of hydrolysed proteins, especially  when fast digestion and absorption is a selection criteria. Another key benefit of the Nutri Whey Hydro is that it has on average 14% more leucine compared to other whey protein hydrolysates in the market. Leucine is the key trigger amino acid for the body to start building new muscle material.

AF: Between casein and whey, what sport nutrition use cases call for one or for the other?
RM: Whey and casein protein supplements are complementary to each other. Both are complete proteins (PDCAAS value casein 1,23 and whey 1,18), so from a WHO perspective they are absolutely the highest nutritional quality level possible.  These proteins abundantly provide all the essential amino acids  the body needs to build muscle while recovering from sporting activities.
The main difference between the two protein sources is their digestion pattern after intake and this links with the timing of amino acids release into the blood stream and the moment of use.
Whey based protein supplements makes most sense when you want to recover fast, such as right after an intense morning sporting session when you intend to do another session in the afternoon. Casein proteins instead are providing a sustained, prolonged release of amino acids – resulting in a longer, but less intense, recovery effect. Both sources offer advantages and can be used at different moments. What is very unique for casein is its role in overnight recovery, due to the prolonged release of amino acids to the body during the night when you sleep.
Athletes can actually benefit from using the overnight recovery with casein opportunity more – it is an attractive complementary moment of intake that can be combined with whey right after exercise.

Why not extend your recovery time of your evening training while simply sleeping in bed?  Casein is very heat stable, allowing for easy use across many applications incl. hot drinks. 
This advice is also important for the sports enthusiast, as people with busy life style often are confined to do sports and train in the evenings and less so during the day as a professional athlete. The opportunity of overnight recovery will allow these people to be much more energized and better feeling the day after an intense evening training.

AF: The market has a demand for non-dairy proteins. How to do you respond to this, as a dairy company?
RM: We operate in a dynamic market with different trends playing and one of these is an increase in demand for non-dairy, plant based proteins. Today, the use of dairy proteins nevertheless continue to be the preferred source and the usage is growing significantly (Euromonitor 2017). This is not surprising when you look at the benefits gained from premium dairy proteins. The nutritional value of dairy is higher than found in plant based proteins and it’s easy to create tasty protein enriched products with dairy proteins due to superior formulation and sensory qualities. As a result manufacturers can offer consumers clean label products, based on a short list of ingredients. This taps into another key consumer trend which is the need for transparency and for clean and clear labelling. Also, more specialised market segments such as performance/sports nutrition have a demand for solid scientific evidence behind any claims and the comprehensive body of science available to back dairy protein benefits today is a key factor which we continue to invest further in. Also, with the increasing world population, rising welfare, and a greying population in many countries, the overall demand for protein is going to continue to increase for the years to come. This allows all sources of proteins to play to their best strengths in a positive market environment. At Friesland Campina we pride ourselves in offering dairy proteins produced from fresh milk sourced directly from local member farmers, processed in a sustainable and fully controlled and transparent manner to produce premium nutritional quality products that resonate with the consumer needs.

AF: What should we expect next from DMV FrieslandCampina in the field of sport nutrition?
RM:  2018 is going to be an exciting year with several important innovations. Early 2018 we will introduce Micelate Prestige, a premium Micellar Casein recovery solution, developed specifically for serious athletes. Furthermore we are in a final development phase for a new ‘on trend’ protein solution.  We also plan to go beyond muscle health in 2018, so stay tuned for more news. Working directly with scientific organisations around the world as well as Olympic athletes really has helped us step up development efforts and provide us the in depth insights needed to bring innovation into the performance nutrition segment.