Vitafoods Asia live: FrieslandCampina Ingredients elevates children’s nutrition with new innovation platform

20 Sep 2023 --- FrieslandCampina Ingredients is introducing an early life nutrition (ELN) platform that supports children’s physical and mental development from childhood into adolescence through advanced F&B. Step Up Nutrition, which is debuting today at Vitafoods Asia in Bangkok, Thailand, holds potential for innovative products, from “Beat the Bugs” MFGM-enhanced yogurt drinks to “Cool & Calm” GOS-enriched gummies.

The proteins and prebiotics player anticipates “seismic change” in the ELN market as brands pursue new growth avenues. According to the World Bank, global birth rates continue to decline, which is contracting the traditional market – infant milk formula.

“Although fewer babies are being born, those whose birth preceded the turn of this decade are now entering childhood, which presents both challenges and opportunities,” Floor van der Horst, global marketing director for ELN at FrieslandCampina Ingredients, tells Nutrition Insight.

“Specifically, we see a growing consumer need for specialized nutrition for children beyond infancy and a push by brands to bring fortification to the next level. By adding functional ingredients with a proven track record in infant milk formula into children’s foods, they can both differentiate their offering and add value for consumers.”

Besides macro-demographic factors, more nuanced trends such as an increasingly “hourglass-shaped” price market (where premium and budget options dominate, squeezing out the mid-price range) and shifting consumer focus from traditional protein sources to alternatives are impacting ELN.

Parents push nutrition
FrieslandCampina Ingredients created Step Up Nutrition – a cross-category solutions portfolio for ages 3+ designed to support five core areas of a child’s development – to enable brands to leverage the market’s emerging growth potential with credible scientific substantiation and effective sensory properties.FrieslandCampina Ingredients’ Step Up platform promises to pioneer children’s nutrition products.

“Parents today are more informed than ever about the importance of nutrition and taking a holistic approach to health. This awareness is, understandably, filtering down into the food choices they make for their children,” explains van der Horst.

“Traditionally, the parent’s ‘laser focus’ on their child’s diet has lessened as infants become toddlers and join family meals more naturally. But this is changing – parents want to ensure the best possible nutrition even when their children are consuming a much broader range of foods than they did during the first years of life.”

According to research commissioned by FrieslandCampina Ingredients for its Vision 2030 Early Life Nutrition report, the parents of tomorrow will be as invested in their child’s mental and emotional development as their physical growth.

This trend has continued to emerge over recent years. In a global study by Innova Market Insights in 2020, over half of parents stated they were concerned about their children’s emotional well-being. In 2022, a YouGov study revealed that cognitive development was a key priority for over half of parents in South East Asia.

While physical growth indicators like strong bones remain incredibly important, parents are also more aware of the central role gut bacteria can play in children’s health, from building immunity to healthy digestion.

Untapped opportunities
The ELN market’s growth potential is clear, but maximizing the category’s success and longevity relies on new solutions being built on added value. FrieslandCampina Ingredients brings a solid understanding of specific ingredients and a long heritage in infant nutrition to its new platform.Floor van der Horst, global marketing director for ELN at FrieslandCampina Ingredients.

“This is where applications, quality and regulatory expertise make the difference,” says van der Horst. “As well as helping to enhance both the final product and the ingredient substantiation that supports the brand’s desired message, the platform’s value-added services can accelerate development times and improve the probability of success.”

Step Up Nutrition’s five health benefit areas were identified as most relevant to the 3-12 year age group and alleviating parents’ concerns.

“Similarly, these concepts demonstrate how our functional ingredients can deliver health benefits in convenient and attractive applications. There’s plenty of scope for growth – for example, combining GOS and 2’-FL in a spoonable probiotic yogurt could be an interesting route to go down,” continues van der Horst.

“Meanwhile, DHA-enriched gummies are an application already being discussed.”

“Or customers could consider a combination of ingredients, which address several aspects of health, to enrich the diet of children who are picky eaters. The platform is incredibly versatile – it allows us to find the right angle, ingredient and application that fits the customer’s target population.”

Asian market trends
FrieslandCampina Ingredients is currently showcasing Step Up Nutrition at the VitaFoods Asia industry trade show (20-22 September), where the company expects the growth of functionality claims in everyday products to be a major trend.

“In other words, we expect to see concrete health benefits becoming available outside of supplements and specialized nutrition categories,” van der Horst tells us.

The FrieslandCampina Ingredients team at Vitafoods Asia 2023.“But the entire child nutrition category is very new, so where child fortification has traditionally been largely limited to minerals and vitamins, we anticipate growing demand for easy-to-handle ingredients that have their origins in ELN, as they add real value.”

The company’s new platform plays into those trends by bringing science-backed ingredients to convenient, tasty and attractive applications.

According to van der Horst, nutritional requirements do not vary significantly across the world, but there are specific factors to consider within the Asian market.

“Chinese parents see cognitive health as a higher priority than those in other countries. There are differences in the preferred applications too – and even then, the Asia Pacific region isn’t homogenic,” she says.

“For instance, in China, supplements are the preferred format for children’s nutrition, but elsewhere, everyday foods and drinks are more popular. In Vietnam, spoonable yogurts top the list, whereas in Indonesia, it’s milk powders.”

“Flavor preferences are different in Asia too, so it’s important that we and our customers develop applications that suit the palates of children from the region.”

“What is certainly true, though, is that we see Asia as the home of children’s nutrition thanks to the emphasis that parents in the region place on it.”

By Joshua Poole