“No added sugar, natural and nutrient-dense”: What’s driving pediatric nutrition R&D?

10 Sep 2019 --- Despite cutting-edge advancements in pediatric nutrition, lengthy regulatory processes are slowing down their arrival on the market. For this reason, product development that leverages attributes of existing ingredients, such as protein, is at the forefront of NPD. So, using ingredients that can tout the added claims of naturalness, grass-fed and provenance will continue to lead the way and continue to attract consumer trust. This is according to industry experts, who speak to NutritionInsight about the trends driving the category.

“The biggest challenges entering the child nutrition arena are developing ingredients that have regulatory approval and are proven to deliver the benefit that consumers are looking for and can understand. The time and investment required are large and the restrictions on what can be communicated to consumers are very strict,” says Angela Rowan, NZMP Marketing Manager, Paediatric Nutrition.

Catering to children and infants is a growing space. Health and wellbeing are, of course, optimal to all age groups, but they are arguably most vital to vulnerable groups such as babies, toddlers and children.

This is particularly salient at this moment in time, following some high-profile criticisms of the baby food market.According to Innova Market Insights data, baby snacks are finding more shelf space and are continuing to grow.

This summer, the European division of The World Health Organization (WHO) noted that a large proportion of products are high in sugar and incorrectly promoted as suitable for infants under six months. In a bid to strengthen current market regulations, it developed a draft Nutrient Profile Model (NPM) as part of a damning report designed to tackle high sugar levels and eliminate misleading marketing practises. This set the composition thresholds for baby food products, including fats, sugar and salt with the aim of promoting a healthy diet for infants and young children. 

When it comes to products already hitting the shelves, parents and guardians are increasingly drawn to products that appear natural and “clean” to feed to their little ones. According to Innova Market Insights data, baby snacks are finding more shelf space and are continuing to grow. Fruit Products & Yogurts have had a CAGR of 13 percent from 2014 to 2018, while Baby Cereals & Biscuits showed a CAGR of 11 percent in the same time period.

“Across all age groups for children, natural and organic foods are attracting increasing interest, which is driving R&D. Parents have similar concerns about health areas such as brain development and protection as their children grow up. We are starting to see more interest in healthy food options – low added sugar, natural and nutrient-dense,” Rowan explains.

Notably, the market researcher finds that the top positioning for infant nutrition launches tracked globally is No Additives/Preservatives, followed by Organic, No Added Sugar and, lastly, Brain Health.

In this line, more investment is going toward developing propositions and the credentials to support ingredients to ensure differentiation and validation from competitors, Rowan explains. NZMP has developed organic base formula powders to reduce the certification and supply chain complexity and risk for customers.

Key examples of this are highlighting consumer-valued claims such as grass-fed and organic, explains Rowan. New convenient formats are also an area of investment to give consumers a greater range of choices that fit their busy lifestyles, while allowing them to access the benefits they are seeking.

New ingredients in the pipeline?
Despite the reliance on trusted ingredients in the arena, investment is still funneled toward establishing efficacy and regulatory acceptability for new ingredients. This is despite regulatory hurdles being particularly prominent in this vulnerable space.

Tapping into these points, Rowan notes that NZMP has developed organic base formula powders to reduce the certification and supply chain complexity and risk for customers.

“Sourcing a secure supply of high-quality organic pediatric grade ingredients can be very challenging, especially when you overlay the end-to-end supply chain and organic certification requirements across all the ingredients required to produce an infant formula,” she says.

Meanwhile, as a space that has attracted a huge amount of attention in recent years, ingredients positioned toward gut health are in vogue.

“Probiotics are the standout ingredients for the gut microbiome, as we know they survive transit through the stomach and small intestine and have an impact in the lower gut,” says Rowan.

“We have had a strong research program on probiotics, not only looking at gut balance and healthy digestion, but also immune function and protection against allergies. We also examine metabolic health aspects, such as gestational diabetes, obesity and inflammation,” she adds. 

Health and wellbeing are arguably most vital to vulnerable groups such as babies, toddlers and childrenNZMP’s work on probiotics supports the hypothesis that what happens in the gut can affect the brain. Its probiotic LactoB 001 may reduce stress and anxiety, for example. The company has also set its sights on establishing milk fat globule membrane’s (MFGM) efficacy for infant nutrition, particularly in relation to cognitive development and function. 

The company is also investing in a research program, Smarter Lives, which is investigating the impact on several ingredients across the gut-brain axis in children and adults.

Arla Food Ingredients also recently obtained Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) approval relating to its use of alpha-lactalbumin in infant formula. Alpha-lactalbumin is rich in essential amino acids and the most abundant protein in human milk, comprising about 25 percent of total protein content. Adding an alpha-lactalbumin ingredient such as Lacprodan ALPHA-10 to an infant formula means it can emulate human milk more closely in terms of protein concentration and composition. 

Due to its composition, the ingredient also makes it possible to reduce overall protein levels in a formula. This is widely considered desirable because, while more research is needed, reducing the protein concentration of formula has been suggested as a preventive strategy for cutting the risk of overweight and obesity in children. Other benefits associated with alpha-lactalbumin include a reduction in feeding-related gastrointestinal events, protection against intestinal infections and support for a healthy gut microbiota.

What’s next?
The role for health claims in the infant and baby nutrition space is clear, especially as parents and caregivers are attracted to claims that emit a “natural” character. Alongside this, reducing sugar in the market as a whole will continue to be a driver, while increasing knowledge of gut health has opened up a new market category for R&D focus.

By Laxmi Haigh