Five minutes at FI Europe  with … 

Torben Jensen – Senior Category & Application Manager Fresh Dairy Products and Desserts

Agro Food Industry Hi-Tech: What innovations are you presenting at FIE 2017?
Torben Jensen: We launched a healthier kids snacking concept containing multiple different products – a dairy bar, a yogurt bar, a dessert, a carbonated drinking yogurt, and a snack cake. We add milk proteins, in some cases pure whey proteins, to the products, for example in the snack bar. In the healthy kids’ dessert we reduced sugar as well, while enriching protein and mineral components.

AF: With a clear health benefit?
TJ: Benchmarked against other products in the market, our dairy bar for example gets more of the calories from the protein, which is more balanced. There is also an increased amount of calcium.

AF: What is your sugar reduction strategy?

TJ: Proteins by themselves do not help the sweetness, but they create a better texture and mouthfeel; in this respect we can say that they help creating a sugar-reduced product which is still delicious for kids. In general the higher the protein content, the higher the astringency. But we use a  specialized subset of the protein, that gets rid of the astringency. Our particular processing helps balancing taste and protein content.

AF: And what about infant nutrition?

TJ: At FIE we are also launching new range of whey protein-based Complementary Feeding solutions that support babies and their parents during the gradual move to solid foods. The new range include a smoothie, a yoghurt, a rusk and a porridge. They have been developed as templates that food and beverage companies can use to create finished products under their own brands.

AF: What trends does Arla see for the future in milk proteins and health nutrition?
TJ: The next big thing is blood sugar control. Blood sugar control is paramount, from a health point of view. Diseases related to hyperglycemia are the third global risk factor for premature mortality after hypertension and tobacco. By combining the beneficial effects of ingesting whey protein and non-digestible fibers for blood glucose control, we have developed a pre-meal shot application which in a very low volume serving of 100 ml, provides 15 g of Lacprodan^® whey protein and more than 3 g of fibres.

In a clinical study in collaboration with researchers at the University of Newcastle in the UK we can see an improved blood glucose control with the intake of 15g Lacprodan^® Whey Protein in type 2 diabetes patients.A scientific paper presenting the results from the clinical study is currently in submission.