Arla Foods Ingredients will show what it calls "a highly innovative whey protein" at Health Ingredients Europe, Nov. 13 to 15 at the Messe Frankfurt in Germany.

In a statement, Arla said the whey protein "is set to transform the fast-growing clinical nutrition category by offering companies the opportunity to create a 100% whey-based ready-to-drink beverage that is more effective, easier to formulate and better-tasting."

Arla scientists have overcome the technical challenges associated with a producing a 100% whey protein concentrate ingredient that is stable when subjected to UHT processing. Lacprodan DI-7017 is a new generation of pure whey protein concentrate that is stable in ultra-high temperature formulations at neutral pH.

According to Arla Food Ingredients, whey protein is notoriously hard to incorporate into UHT processes, which are widely used to manufacture clinical nutrition beverages with a long shelf life. As a result, manufacturers have until now tended to use alternative and less nutritionally effective proteins, such as casein, when formulating beverages for use in clinical nutrition. Such beverages are consumed primarily by elderly people suffering with conditions such as sarcopenia (muscle wastage) and patients recovering from illness or surgery.

However, incorporating whey protein into clinical nutrition beverages is highly desirable because there is compelling scientific evidence that whey delivers faster ‘gastric emptying’ and greater levels of muscle synthesis than other protein ingredients.

Available in powder form, Lacprodan DI-7017 is suitable for use in both pH acid and pH neutral formulations, increasing the variety of product types and packaging formats into which it can be incorporated. It is suitable in the milky beverages typically used in clinical nutrition, but can also be incorporated into less viscous beverages which may be easier for some patients to drink.