NZMP at International Whey Conference (IWC) 2020

Delivering improved functional and gastric digestion properties through advanced whey protein ingredients

Malnutrition is a severe problem especially among elderly, critically ill patients, or patients that are recovering from a surgery. The nutritional targets are often difficult to reach for those people, because patients typically have a lower ability to swallow, have lack of appetite and/or suffer from upper gastrointestinal intolerance.

Whey proteins are of great interest because they are easily digestible, are a rich source of essential amino acids, promote muscle protein synthesis and help to maintain muscle mass.

Although whey proteins can provide a significant advantage in oral nutritional supplements at high concentrations, their use is limited because of their susceptibility to heat-induced aggregation.

Dr. Cakir-Fuller will address the current technical challenges of designing high whey protein nutritional beverages and highlight the ability of microparticulated whey protein (MWP) to overcome these technical hurdles without altering the textural properties and maintaining the nutritional qualities.

MWP can be regarded as a combination of native proteins and both soluble and insoluble protein aggregates of controlled size. The mechanism driving the enhanced heat stability of the protein particles will be explained based on microstructure, rheological behavior and particle size distribution under high temperature heat treatment.

She will also discuss the upper gastrointestinal digestion behavior of these nutritional compositions designed with MWP using a human gastric simulator. Modulation of the gastric emptying rate under a dynamic in-vitro digestion study will be discussed.

Discover the full IWC 2020 programme here.