DSM puts early childhood nutrition on display at IFT
For more than 150 years, DSM says it has specialized in cultures, enzymes, cheese ripening, bio-preservation solutions and residual antibiotic milk tests to produce cheese, fermented milk products and lactose-free milk.
One area DSM’s dairy ingredients are focused on is early childhood nutrition, including infants, toddlers and kids. According to DSM, “the first 1,000 days, between the onset of a woman’s pregnancy and her child’s second birthday, provides a unique window of opportunity to deliver important nutrients that can help shape a healthy future.”
Frédéric Boned, VP EMEA at DSM, said, “At DSM, we are always looking for new ways to innovate and help our customers to create market-leading nutritional products for mothers and their babies.”
Recreating the gold standard
DSM points to breast milk as the ‘gold standard’ for infant nutrition, often studied and analyzed to determine the nutrient requirements in formula and its ingredients. DSM says that ARA and DHA are the primary omega-6 and omega-3 long-chain fatty acids found in breast milk, important for cognitive growth and visual and immune development.
Because they are both crucial during early growth stages, DSM developed ‘life’s ARA’ omega-6 and ‘life’s DHA’ omega-3 as sustainable, vegetarian varieties for use in infant nutrition products. ‘Quali-D’ (vitamin D) and ‘Quali-C’ (vitamin C) are also categorized in the infant health portfolio, boosting the immune system and bone growth.
“Today’s dairy aisles are continuously changing to keep up with consumer demand for affordable as well as premium products, and products that are allergen-free, fat and sugar-reduced, clean label and more indulgent. As a true dairy industry partner on a mission to enable better food for everyone, we offer ingredients and solutions to help dairy manufacturers cater to these wishes,” DSM said.
DSM supported this goal last summer with the announcement of a new “premix manufacturing facility built exclusively for the maternal and infant nutrition market” in Poland. Construction began in the fall, and DSM expects that the plant will be able to double production output at the site within two years.
Seatbelt security preservatives
At IFT 2019, DSM showcased solutions for early childhood nutrition, proactive adults and healthy agers. Gummy candy, protein bars, nutritional yogurt and functional beverages were offered to display its portfolio of ingredients.
They specifically put a spotlight on the company’s latest biopreservation solutions, including the DelvoGuard protective cultures, which “help dairy producers meet consumer demand for clean labels and a longer shelf life at both ambient and chilled temperatures, maintaining product freshness and unique taste and texture characteristics.”
DSM said that on-the-go products struggle the most with natural preservation, surviving commutes between refrigeration. The team tested DelvoGuard with yogurt and found that it can extend the expiration date of sweet yogurts by up to two weeks.
Ingrid Damen, business manager of shelf life solutions at DSM, told DairyReporter, “If you take those products on the go, whether it’s in a cup or for kids, they’re unrefrigerated. To make sure that they’re also safe, and to make sure the yogurt is still protected, we have developed a range of protective cultures that allow for higher temperature storage. It’s kind of a seatbelt security for producers.”
DSM said, “Roughly one third – approximately 1.3bn tons – of the food produced for human consumption globally is lost or wasted every year . Extending the shelf life of products by just one day could prevent 0.2m tons of household food waste. With consumers more environmentally-conscious than ever before, this puts the food industry under increasing pressure to tackle the issue.”
