News
New Patent Reinforces NZMP’s Leadership in Infant Nutrition
Find out how European customers using SureStart™ MFGM Lipid ingredients will be able to position their products as beneficial for cognitive development.
24 Jul 2020
2 min
How does this new patent impact NZMP customers?
The newly granted patent (EP 2211629) approval will give protection to customers until October 2028 and provide reassurance for consumers that they are purchasing a high-quality, innovative product with benefits that are backed by robust science.
NZMP Marketing and Business Development Manager for Paediatric Nutrition Angela Rowan says: “There is increasing consumer awareness around the role of MFGM complex lipids, such as phospholipids and gangliosides, to support brain and cognitive development in infants and young children.
“The patent provides an added level of credibility for consumer brands.”
Our customers will be able to talk about cognition benefits for their products that contain SureStart™ MFGM ingredients due to the patent protection.
Angela Rowan | Marketing & Business Development Manager, Paediatric Nutrition
The granting of the patent leverages NZMP’s unique value proposition for SureStart™ MFGM Lipid ingredients in Europe.
Following an infant clinical study in 2018, NZMP confirmed the benefits of MFGM ingredients. The study found that an infant formula produced with a SureStart™ MFGM ingredient to enrich the complex lipid content improved some measures of cognitive development in infants[1].
NZMP Senior Research Scientist Dr Paul McJarrow says the European patent demonstrates NZMP’s leadership in nutrition backed by innovative science:
We’ve been manufacturing MFGM complex lipid ingredients for more than 25 years. Research and development undertaken over this time has allowed us to refine our product offerings, so that our customers can offer their consumers MFGM containing products and the benefits thereof.
Paul McJarrow | NZMP Senior Research Scientist
The patent is part of a family of patents that supports the use of MFGM complex lipid ingredients, including SureStart™ MFGM Lipids in maternal and paediatric formulations for increased cognitive development.
These have also been granted in China, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Mexico, and Russia.
Human milk is the optimal source of nutrition for infants. When breastfeeding is not possible, infant and follow-on formulas are the only suitable alternative. When parents are choosing infant formula, they are looking for products that are as close to human milk as possible.
Historically milk fat has been replaced with vegetable oils, and therefore formulas are usually diminished of the milk fat globule membrane complex lipids which are naturally present in breastmilk.
References
- [1] Xia et al. (2018)