New research project on healthier infant formula
Associate professor Marianne Nissen Lund, who has a shared employment between BMI and FOOD, has received an impressive grant of DKK 13.6 million from GUDP and the Danish Dairy Research Foundation for a project on healthier infant formula.
A new research project entitled “INFANT-I: Tailored processing of bioactive ingredients for high-end infant formula” will clarify whether a more gentle processing of ingredients for infant formula can improve the health of newborns that are fed with infant formula.
Associate professor Marianne Nissen Lund, who has a shared employment between the Department of Biomedical Sciences and the Department of Food Science (FOOD), has received DKK 11,434,453 from The Green Development and Demonstration Programme (GUDP) and DKK 2,160,000 from the Danish Dairy Research Foundation for the project which runs from 1 July, 2018 to 30 June, 2022.
“We do not know what this means for protein quality at the molecular level when the infant formulas are processed with multiple heat treatments and that is what we are going to find out. We know from earlier studies – also carried out at University of Copenhagen – that newborn piglets have better intestinal health if the infant formula has undergone a milder treatment where the whey proteins remain more intact and natural. However, we still pasteurise the milk for food safety, but only to the point that is necessary,” says Marianne Nissen Lund.