Annual Product Development Outlook

Dairy Foods, March, 2001 by Donna Berry

This research provides promising results on the growth-promotion and prebiotic activity of honey on bifidobacteria and makes honey a choice sweetener in the development of functional foods.

* Sucralose

Trademarked and sold under the brand Splenda [R], sucralose received FDA approval in August 1999 as a general-purpose sweetener. This allows its application whenever sugar is used.

Sucralose is about 600-times sweeter then sugar and has no calories. It is derived from sugar through a multi-step patented process that substitutes three atoms of chlorine for three hydroxyl groups on the sugar molecule.

Until recently, the only dairy foods to use sucralose were coffee milk beverages. However this past month, Wells' Dairy Inc., Le Mars, Iowa, introduced the first U.S. yogurt with sucralose. The sweetener is said to enhance fruit flavor.

It is just a matter of time before more dairies begin to use sucralose as a low-calorie sweetener.

* Tagatose

D-tagatose is a low-calorie sweeten er and bulking agent awaiting GRAS (generally recognized as safe) approval. It is manufactured from either cheese whey or milk that has been hydrolyzed into a mixture of galactose and glucose (U.S. patents 5,002,612 and 5,078,796).

Tagatose contains about 92% of the sweetening level of sugar and only one-third of the calories. It has also been shown to have a prebiotic effect since it can stimulate butyrate production and lactic acid bacteria in the intestines.

Fatty Acids

* Conjugated Linoleic Acid

Fat is making a comeback. Consumers are learning that it not only makes foods taste better, but delivers many health benefits.

Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is a free fatty acid naturally present in cows milk and certain meats, primarily beef. Microbes produce CLA in a cow's stomach, which then passes into the milk. Compared to other foods, dairy products contain the highest native food source of CLA.

Researchers believe potential health properties are linked to its molecular construction, which includes double bonds at carbon atoms 10 and 12, or 9 and 11. It is the cis-9, trans-11 isomer present in milk-related CLA that might have anti-cancer properties, as well as have a positive impact on bone health. However, before the dairy industry makes any claims about the CLA in dairy foods, it plans to establish sound scientific facts.

"Our goal is to determine if health benefits attributed to CLA can be demonstrated when the source of CLA is dairy-derived," says Doug DiRienzo, dir. of nutrition research for Dairy Management Inc. "Further, we are trying to determine the amount of CLA required to produce these benefits."

Besides being inherently present in cows milk, researchers are identifying ways to increase CLA levels. At the University of Wisconsin in Madison, researchers discovered that cows eating pasture or grass produce more CLA than cows that eat grain or other types of feed. By manipulating the feed, cows can yield up to five times more CLA in their milk than cows on a standard diet. This milk can be used to make CLA-rich dairy products, or the CLA can be extracted from milkfat and used to enrich regular milk.