Sports nutrition is no longer a segment limited to body-builders and athletes, as regular consumers are now paying more attention to the nutritional content of the food and drinks that they consume, in particular seeking products which contain high levels of protein.
Formulating these products brings new challenges, as companies need to ensure great taste, texture while also providing high-quality protein to today’s consumers.
To meet these needs, Ingredia has developed a range of micellar caseins for use in various applications, which the company showcased at Vitafoods Europe 2018.
The company’s product manager Elsa Trotier gave more detail about these new products to FoodBev’s Martin White, and discussed the importance of the sports nutrition market to the company.
Can you tell us a bit about the new concepts and products that Ingredia showcased at Vitafoods Europe 2018?
This year Ingredia focused on active nutrition, so we wanted to showcase some of our newly-formulated products with high-protein content.
Firstly we have Build Up, a high-protein beverage which has been formulated with Prodiet Fluid, a native micellar casein, and with this ingredient you can reach up to 14% protein content in a beverage.
Build Up itself has 8% protein content, with 20g of protein per serving. With its slow amino acid release, it is a really effective product for muscle mass recovery and is perfect as a post-workout drink for men.
Secondly, we have a bar called My Moments, which has been formulated for active women with Prodiet Bar, a micellar casein which allows the bar to retain softness throughout the bar’s shelf life, and the bar itself contains 30% protein with 8g of protein per serving.
The bar is very effective for weight management thanks to the micellar casein, which helps prevent fat and weight gain, and the bar makes you feel fuller for longer so can help consumers avoid snacking.
Finally, we have a high-protein pudding called Squeez’ Up for active teenagers. The micellar casein used for the pudding is Prodiet Advance, which helps muscle growth and preservation for teenagers while they grow.
Does Ingredia view the sports nutrition segment as its most important market?
Yes, the market is really important for us as more and more consumers are focussing on what they eat, so it’s important for us to develop high-quality proteins to respond to this.
In our proteins we have high amino acid content which helps muscular recovery, so we really want to focus on this in the future.
What makes Ingredia’s proteins different to its competitors?
As a dairy cooperative we are sure about the quality of our milk and our native milk proteins and micellar caseins, and we can effectively monitor the production of our products from the beginning until the very end of the production process, ensuring high-quality.
Do you think we will see more high-protein ingredients being used in a wider range of products and applications in the future?
Yes I do, I think the high-protein trend is very important as more consumers want to know exactly how many grams of protein they are consuming in each product they consume.
Tailoring more products to the sports nutrition market is important for manufacturers, as protein content is becoming a more important consideration for consumers when they buy a product.
What’s next for Ingredia in terms of product development?
I think we will continue to focus on active nutrition, but I think it will be interesting to focus on new products for elderly people to give them more high-protein options.
Ingredia wants to offer our ingredients to people in all age categories, so we will continue to develop ingredients for infant nutrition, clinical nutrition and sports nutrition, which remains the most interesting segment for us.
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