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Chapter 20

Dairy Ingredients in Infant and Adult

Nutrition Products

Jeffrey Baxter , Steven Dimler , and Nagendra Rangavajala

Introduction

A wide variety of nutritional products,
ranging from infant feeding to critical care
nutrition, are generated using bovine milk -
derived materials as the principal source of
high - quality protein and nutrients. Nutrition-
ally, milk is considered to be a nearly perfect
food because it provides more essential nutri-
ents in signifi cant amounts than any other
single food. Milk is an excellent source of
calcium and phosphorus for bones and teeth,
and it contains several fat - and water - soluble
vitamins in signifi cant amounts.
This chapter discusses the use of dairy ingre-
dients and technologies in the development
and commercialization of infant, medical,
and sports nutritional products, along with
benefi ts these products confer to the health
needs. A commentary on future research
trends and opportunities is presented.

Infant Nutrition

Any discussion of infant formula develop-
ment is stimulated by an ever - deepening
understanding of the composition of breast
milk. The ability of the industry to mimic the
composition (or at least the physiologic
response) using commercial formulas is
driven by such knowledge, and by the

increasing sophistication of commercially

available ingredients. Today there is a

growing assortment of general and special-

ized infant formulas. One of the greatest

achievements of nutrition research in the past

several decades has been the introduction of

specialty formulas used to feed premature

and very low - birth weight infants.

Although the compositions of the avail-

able infant formulas approach mother ’ s milk,

they are subjected to strict regulations to

safeguard the safety of the infants. These

regulations, coupled with safety and shelf

stability requirements, currently limit the

ability to completely replicate the composi-

tion of human milk. For example, the ability

to include bioactive factors such as active

enzymes, immunoglobulins, and growth

factors that are present in human milk in

ready - to - feed versions of these formulas is

technologically limited due to heat process-

ing to which liquid formulas are subjected

and that result in denaturation that affects

the functionality of these bioactive factors.

Furthermore, when commercial sterility is

achieved, the biologically functional 3 - D

structures of many of these factors are dis-

rupted, and activity is reduced or eliminated.

Another aspect of mother ’ s milk is its chang-

ing nature through lactation. While some

manufacturers have produced staged formu-

las, this still does not quite mimic the natu-

rally delivered nutrition.

The basic regulations for infant nutrition

are the U.S. Infant Formula Act, the European

Food Safety Authority (EFSA) regulations,

Dairy Ingredients for Food Processing edited by
Ramesh C. Chandan and Arun Kilara
© 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.