Arla Foods Ingredients has launched a fermented beverage concept that demonstrates how dairies can reduce waste and increase yield by upcycling whey.
Raw material waste is a major problem for dairies. After processing, many are left with large whey side streams, which can cause environmental damage if discharged with wastewater.
Meanwhile, sustainability is a growing focus in Latin America. Over 50 % of consumers in the region say they have changed their behaviors based on environmental concerns, a figure projected to reach 70 % by 2025. More than four in ten (44 %) say they have already stopped buying products due to their impact on the environment.1
Now Arla Foods Ingredients has launched a fermented beverage concept based on upcycled acid or sweet whey. It also contains Nutrilac® whey proteins, which provide a light texture and refreshing taste, as well as protein content as high as 8 %, so that a 200 ml bottle would contain 16 g of protein.
Nutrilac® also offers superior heat stability to standard milk protein concentrate or whey protein concentrate. This allows the development of creamy low-viscosity beverages without sedimentation, sandiness or dry mouthfeel. Low in fat and containing no added sugar, the beverage can be produced on standard yoghurt lines with minimal investment.
Ignacio Estevez, Application Manager, South America at Arla Foods Ingredients, said: “Consumers hate the idea of waste, especially if it’s environmentally harmful. Reflecting this, we’re starting to see more and more products that make use of upcycled ingredients and communicate it on their packaging. Getting value out of whey is a significant challenge in dairy production but, as this concept demonstrates, it can be used to create on-trend new products that appeal to both sustainability-conscious and protein-focused consumers. The fact that it can be produced easily and with minimal investment provides an additional incentive to innovate.”
Arla Foods Ingredients is showcasing the new concept in a series of videos in Portuguese and Spanish. They highlight its benefits from sustainability, technical, regulatory, and consumer trends perspectives, and can be viewed at https://br.arlafoodsingredients.com/ and https://la.arlafoodsingredients.com/.
1Kantar, November 2023
The climate impact of food is important to Europeans. Three out of five consumers consider climate impact when buying food according to a new survey by Yara.
Yara International announced the findings in a new European survey on sustainable food conducted by leading international market research company IPSOS on behalf of Yara. The report provides an overview of consumer purchasing habits and sustainable food preferences.
“The report shows that Europeans are highly motivated to buy sustainable food to reduce their climate impact. This should be a wake-up call to the entire food industry,” says Birgitte Holter, VP of Green Fertilisers at Yara. “While three out of five Europeans find the climate impact important when buying food, a majority feel it is not easy enough to understand available information about the climate emission to be able to make sustainable choices. More than three out of four consumers would prefer to be able to read the carbon footprint on the food item,” Holter says.
The world’s food production accounts for more than a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions. This new report shows that 58 % of Europeans consider the climate impact important when buying food and beverages. In addition, 51 % of Europeans are willing to pay more for fossil free food items, meaning food produced without fossil sources. However, most people feel that it is not easy to know which food is climate friendly, as 76 % of Europeans would like the carbon footprint to be visible on the food label.
“Decarbonisation of food is possible and that is why we are developing green fertilisers made from water and air using renewable energy, to support farmers and food companies in reducing their climate impact of their food. These voluntary choices must be supported by adequate policies. The EU’s Sustainable Food System initiative, planned for the end of 2023, should therefore create a set of incentives for food systems’ actors to go beyond the minimum requirements and favor low-carbon footprint solutions such as green fertilisers,” says Holter.
In Porsgrunn, Norway, Yara is building the first production plant to run on renewable energy. From here, Yara will produce green fertilisers made without the use of fossil energy or fossil sources. This will result in crops with an up to 30 % lower carbon footprint and up to 20 % carbon footprint reduction in the food produced, making them a powerful solution to grow a decarbonised and fossil free food future. The first green fertilisers are planned to enter production in the second half of 2023.
The market demand for food made without fossil energy sources is high. More than half of Europeans (51 %) said they are willing to pay more for climate friendly food. A clear majority of Europeans (74 %) say food companies need to work to reduce the emissions from their food production.
Key findings in this survey:
- 58 % of Europeans consider the climate impact important when buying food and beverage items
- 69 % of Europeans would choose a climate friendlier food item versus a cheaper option. (26 % would choose a fossil free food item, 43 % would choose a low-carbon item)
- 51 % of Europeans say they are willing to pay more for food made without fossil fuel sources
- 31 % of Europeans already make sustainable choices when it comes to their buying habits
- More than three out of four (76 %) Europeans want to see the carbon footprint of food items on the label
- Nearly three out of four Europeans (74 %) believe food companies should work to reduce emissions in their food production
About the survey
The survey on the need for sustainable food was commissioned by Yara International and conducted by IPSOS. The panel consisted of 12,000 consumer respondents in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Poland, Romania, Turkey, Norway, Sweden and Denmark (1,000 respondents in each country). The data was collected from online interviews during the period of December 1 – 14, 2022.
Revolutionary strategic partnership between two global companies, with footprints extending from the farm gate to iconic foods and beverages, provides unprecedented and unique opportunity to expand regen ag at scale
ADM and PepsiCo announced a groundbreaking 7.5-year strategic commercial agreement to closely collaborate on projects that aim to significantly expand regenerative agriculture across their shared North American supply chains. This strategic partnership is expected to reach up to 2 million acres by 2030, and represents a trailblazing effort by two global companies that share ambitious carbon reduction goals. The companies’ capabilities span the food and agriculture value chains, creating a unique, large-scale platform to support farmers’ transition to regenerative agriculture, while building their resilience to climate change.
The long-term agreement will initially enroll corn, soy and wheat farmers across Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Nebraska, with the opportunity for future expansion, to increase visibility across the value chain and integrate a range of multi-year farmer-first regenerative agriculture initiatives, including cover crops, reduced tillage, nutrient management, diverse rotations, and responsible pesticide use. The companies plan to share resources and collaborate to create value throughout the supply chain by providing participants with technical and financial assistance, offering access to peer regenerative farming networks, hosting educational field days, and tracking results using trusted, third-party measurement systems.
Reaching the strategic partnership’s goals could eliminate 1.4 million metric tons of greenhouse gasses – equivalent to the amount of electricity used to power 275,000 homes per year – at the farm level, while creating meaningful shared value directly for farmers.
“Building a better food system is essential to the future health of the earth and all of us,” said Jim Andrew, Chief Sustainability Officer, PepsiCo. “At its core, PepsiCo is an agricultural company, working to spread regenerative agriculture practices that restore the earth and reduce carbon emissions to 7 million acres by 2030. This partnership with ADM marks a sea change in how PepsiCo engages with strategic partners and is expected to help us reach almost one-third of that goal. By enabling greater collaboration through strategic partnerships like this one, we can strengthen the livelihoods and resilience of the farmers we work with, while building a more sustainable future together.”
“Sustainability is fundamental to ADM: Our growth strategy is underpinned by demand for more sustainable products, and our culture compels us to act,” said ADM Chief Sustainability Officer Alison Taylor. “Last year, we expanded on our Strive 35 sustainability goals with a commitment to reduce our Scope 3 emissions by 25 % by 2035, and expanding regenerative agriculture practices – as we have with our recent strategic partnerships with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and Farmers Business Network – will be key to reaching that goal. Today’s announcement is a major step forward, as we work with a partner whose values align with our own to scale up regenerative agriculture in a way few other companies can. We’re excited to take the next big step in reducing carbon and making our entire food system more sustainable.”
pep+ is PepsiCo’s strategic, end-to-end business transformation with sustainability and human capital at the center of how the company will create growth and value. As part of those ambitions, the company is working to spread regenerative practices across 7 million acres of land by 2030 — an area approximately equal to its entire agricultural footprint – and striving to achieve net-zero emissions by 2040.
ADM’s Strive 35 sustainability goals include reducing absolute greenhouse gas emissions by 25 %, energy intensity by 15 %, water intensity by 10 %, and achieving a 90 % landfill diversion rate by 2035 against a 2019 baseline. In 2021, ADM additionally committed to a new, aggressive environmental goal to reduce Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions 25 % by 2035 while accelerating its target date to achieve a completely deforestation-free supply chain from 2030 to 2025. The company has also committed to work with the Science Based Targets Initiative with the aim of obtaining approval of its climate targets and alignment with ambitious global goals to limit rising temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Researchers at Western University are studying a molecule found in sweet oranges and tangerines called nobiletin, which they have shown to drastically reduce obesity in mice and reverse its negative side-effects.
But why it works remains a mystery.
New research published in the Journal of Lipid Research demonstrates that mice fed a high-fat, high-cholesterol diet that were also given nobiletin were noticeably leaner and had reduced levels of insulin resistance and blood fats compared to mice that were fed a high-fat, high-cholesterol diet alone.
“We went on to show that we can also intervene with nobiletin,” said Murray Huff, PhD, a Professor at Western’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry who has been studying nobiletin’s effects for over a decade. “We‘ve shown that in mice that already have all the negative symptoms of obesity, we can use nobelitin to reverse those symptoms, and even start to regress plaque build-up in the arteries, known as atherosclerosis.”
But Huff says he and his team at Robarts Research Institute at Western still haven’t been able to pinpoint exactly how nobiletin works. The researchers hypothesized that the molecule was likely acting on the pathway that regulates how fat is handled in the body. Called AMP Kinase, this regulator turns on the machinery in the body that burns fats to create energy, and it also blocks the manufacture of fats.
However, when the researchers studied nobiletin’s effects on mice that had been genetically modified to remove AMP Kinase, the effects were the same.
“This result told us that nobiletin is not acting on AMP Kinase, and is bypassing this major regulator of how fat is used in the body,” said Huff. “What it still leaves us with is the question – how is nobiletin doing this?”
Huff says while the mystery remains, this result is still clinically important because it shows that nobiletin won’t interfere with other drugs that act on the AMP Kinase system. He says current therapeutics for diabetes like metformin for example, work through this pathway.
The next step is to move these studies into humans to determine if nobiletin has the same positive metabolic effects in human trials.
“Obesity and its resulting metabolic syndromes are a huge burden to our health care system, and we have very few interventions that have been shown to work effectively,” said Huff. “We need to continue this emphasis on the discovery of new therapeutics.”
SABIC introduced its LNP™ ELCRIN™ iQ portfolio of polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) compounded resins derived from recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) to support the circular economy and help reduce plastic waste. By chemically upcycling consumer-discarded PET (primarily single-use water bottles) into higher-value PBT materials with enhanced properties and suitability for more-durable applications, the company is encouraging the use of recycled resins. These products also offer a smaller cradle-to-gate environmental footprint than virgin PBT resin, as measured by Cumulative Energy Demand (CED) and Global Warming Potential (GWP).
Better Properties, Longer Life than PET
SABIC’s LNP™ ELCRIN™ iQ compounds and blends are based on upcycled iQ PBT resins, a proprietary SABIC technology. This technology overcomes some of the limitations of mechanical recycling by using chemical processes to depolymerize PET bottles and other PET waste into their precursor chemicals, purify them and then use them to create new PBT resin. The technology can deliver performance and processing benefits such as good chemical resistance, colorability, high flow for faster throughput and flame retardance (FR).
LNP™ ELCRIN™ iQ resin is a drop-in solution for virgin PBT and other conventional PBT materials, making it easier for manufacturers to make their products more sustainable. By displacing virgin raw material used to manufacture PBT, LNP™ ELCRIN™ iQ resin has been shown through peer-reviewed life cycle assessment[1] to reduce the energy and carbon footprint of the material by up to 61 percent and 49 percent, respectively. Further, each kilogram of LNP™ ELCRIN™ iQ resin uses up to 67 post-consumer PET water bottles (0.5 liter).
The ELCRIN™ iQ portfolio offers customers multiple options, including glass- and mineral-reinforced grades and non-halogenated FR and UV-resistant formulations. Some of the LNP™ ELCRIN™ iQ grades even have the potential to achieve compliance with U.S. Food & Drug Association (FDA) food contact regulations.
Potential applications for these new polymers include durable internal and aesthetic components for consumer electronics, automotive connectors, and housings for medical devices. Such applications can extend the useful life of the original, single-use PET resin, which helps keep the material out of the waste stream for a longer period.
“Consumer-discarded PET bottles lose value and performance properties through conventional mechanical recycling,” said Joshua Chiaw, Global Business Director, LNP, SABIC. “This downcycling process limits the types of applications for which rPET can be used. In contrast, SABIC’s chemical upcycling process helps improve the performance and quality of the final resin product. As a result, these PBT materials are potentially more desirable for durable applications. Overall, LNP™ ELCRIN™ iQ materials can help reduce reliance on virgin resin and address industry and consumer demand for greater use of more-sustainable materials.”
“The development of LNP™ ELCRIN™ iQ materials is a major step forward for SABIC and illustrates our unyielding commitment to our customers, the global plastics industry, and the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, which we joined as a founding member,” said Frank Kuijpers, General Manager, Corporate Sustainability, SABIC. “Our innovative process for chemical upcycling of single-use PET directly supports the AEPW’s goal of developing new technologies that help minimize waste, make recovering and recycling plastics easier, and create value from all post-use plastics.”
SABIC LNP™ ELCRIN™ iQ grades are available worldwide.
[1] The original peer-reviewed life cycle assessment study was completed by SABIC in 2011. The results are being reviewed and updated based on current models, with expected completion and peer-review in 2019.
The Hamburg-based ingredients specialist Bösch Boden Spies presents a new product in its range: Ocean Spray’s 50° Brix cranberry concentrate. It offers beverage manufacturers numerous advantages.
The beverage market is changing: More and more consumers are looking for healthy thirst quenchers that are low on sugar and high on added functional value. Meanwhile, traditional juices and spritzers are increasingly having a hard time in the market. New product concepts are in demand: Ocean Spray’s 50° Brix cranberry concentrate offers beverage manufacturers the ideal basis for this.
The product is characterized by a special production process whereby fewer turbidity-forming ingredients are transferred into the concentrate. As a result, it is particularly color-stable and can easily be mixed with other beverages without flocculating.
Adding this cranberry concentrate to juices, for example, can significantly reduce the sugar content of the beverages. The products taste tart and exotic with a natural, light sweetness. At the same time, the subtle cranberry taste enhances the flavors of the other fruits.
The cranberry concentrate increases the antioxidant content of a drink. And their attractive red color gives beverages containing cranberry a special visual appeal as well.
The cranberry concentrate is also good for using in alcoholic beverages, and is suitable for other product segments as well, such as the dairy sector.
