Leading infant formula research provides a promising competitive advantage and future for exporters following the discovery of a new natural source of nutritional oil that is surprisingly similar to the fat in breast milk

Dr. Caroline Thum, AgResearch

Labour's Water Services Bill has passed, it has been signed by the Governor-General and therefore has become law.

From a rural communities perspective I do not believe this is a good outcome and I explained a bit about the reasons why last week. Aside from essentially stripping assets, this bill will increase compliance costs and increase administrative processes for farmers. But of course this law goes well beyond the farmgate; it affects every New Zealander. And furthermore, what is unacceptable is the lack of a democratic process, it has simply been bulldozed through. We all need to think about that.

Now I have to get back on track as I have an interesting guest. Catherine Thum from Ag Research joins me to talk about research she is carrying out on making infant formula more like breast milk. Quite an interesting topic and of course infant formula is produced from our dairy industry, New Zealand each year export around 120,000 tonnes of infant formula with a value north of $1.5 billion dollars, and that number is set to grow.

So it would seem scientists have identified a unique new way to make infant formula more like breast milk and according to the work and as outlined in the podcast there are significant benefits for infant children, using ingredients that could enhance brain development and overall health.

Research into this next generation infant formula will create new opportunities for New Zealand’s primary industries in a global market worth tens of billions of dollars annually.

With funding over three years recently announced, AgResearch scientists Simon Loveday and Caroline Thum, along with collaborators from Massey and Monash Universities, are aiming to enhance the “human-ness” of infant formula produced from New Zealand ingredients.

“We’ve recently discovered a new natural source of nutritional oil that is surprisingly similar to the fat in breast milk,” Dr Thum says. “We will be combining this new nutritional oil with dairy phospholipids (a special kind of fat) in response to recent evidence that this component of milk enhances babies’ brain development. Fortunately, phospholipids are abundant in buttermilk, which is a by-product of butter production.”

“We’ll then test our next-generation formula ingredient in the laboratory using equipment that simulates the conditions inside a baby’s digestive system. This will tell us how well the new combination is digested, compared to conventional infant formula. We aim to show improved fat and calcium absorption, in addition to the positive effect of the phospholipids for brain development.” Dr Thum says.

With the global markets for infant formula and baby foods expected to continue their strong growth, new products that provide a health advantage are in high demand.

New Zealand’s primary industry is a pretty dynamic environment currently, there are many challenges from a policy perspective, there are many challenges at the farmgate as well, not to mention supply chain issues at our ports, on the high seas and ultimately at our markets ports. One thing is for certain our scientific research into agriculture is world leading and something we should be proud of.

Listen to the podcast to get the full story and full perspectives from a key scientist involved in this work.

Angus Kebbell is the Producer at Tailwind Media. You can contact him here.