Arla Foods Ingredients Launches Research Program Into Sports Nutrition

Sports science graduate and, now, PhD student Stine Klejs Rahbek will conduct the project. Much of her work will involve designing and implementing clinical trials and analysing the results.

Oct 21 2010 --- Arla Foods Ingredients has launched an ambitious three-year joint research project to investigate the specific effect of whey protein hydrolysates on muscle growth and recovery after vigorous exercise.

The results will fill a gap in existing international documentation and, it is hoped, enable further optimisation of Arla Foods Ingredients’ hydrolysates for sports nutrition.

Arla Foods Ingredients is running the project – an industrial PhD – in collaboration with Aarhus University in Denmark.

“Our customers have a strong focus on documentation. We have chosen to look at whey hydrolysates in this project because their effect is less documented than intact whey proteins.”

Hydrolysates are part of the Arla Foods Ingredients’ natural whey protein range for performance-enhancing sports nutrition.

Sports science graduate and, now, PhD student Stine Klejs Rahbek will conduct the project. Much of her work will involve designing and implementing clinical trials and analysing the results.

“It is an exciting opportunity to conduct academic research of value to industry. In three years’ time, Arla Foods Ingredients should have the necessary documentation of hydrolysates’ effect on muscles after exercise,” Rahbek states.

Her time will be divided between Aarhus University’s Department of Sport Science and the factories, analysis laboratories and nutrition business area of Arla Foods Ingredients.

Arla Foods Ingredients has a tradition for collaboration with external research institutes and has a particularly close partnership with Aarhus University, which has an international reputation for pioneering milk protein research.

The industrial PhD has been approved by the Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation, which is also providing financial support.

Part of Arla Foods, the fourth largest cooperative dairy company in the world, Arla Foods Ingredients has production facilities in Denmark, Sweden, Argentina and Germany, application centres in Denmark and Argentina and approximately 1600 employees worldwide.