Innovation for new UHT products

Wyeth says the healthy whole-food-based beverages will be aimed at high-value segments of Asian markets and could create significant new value for the New Zealand food industry.

“This is an exciting next step in our journey to develop value added products for consumers.  Our strategy has been to add more value to our milk and this project gives impetus to Miraka achieving this goal with partners who share the same values.”

AgResearch science team leader Dr Brendan Haigh, who leads the research, says the aim is to develop new scientific knowledge and technology around manufacturing of dairy-based UHT milk products that contain plant or vegetable materials.

“This knowledge then provides the basis for the development of natural shelf-stable products that taste great, yet retain all of the natural health benefits that the dairy and plant material ingredients bring.

“There is strong consumer interest in whole-food-based products providing balanced nutrition with minimal processing,” says Haigh.

Haigh says the team’s role is to find combinations of fresh milk and plant-based ingredients that will be stable without the addition of highly refined stabilisers, emulsifiers or thickeners.

However, he says to achieve these benefits, they need to better understand how these diverse ingredients interact together so they can overcome any stability and compatibility issues. Finally, he says it will be a matter of manufacturing the products on a large scale and create a product with strong customer appeal.

“Developing new dairy foods with consumer appeal and that also deliver the wellness characteristics of plant ingredients is a technical challenge,” says Dr Lee Huffman from Plant & Food Research.

“The strength of this project is the combined expertise of AgResearch and Plant & Food Research along with the processing and market knowledge of Miraka. We’re excited by the potential that this new collaboration between the three organisations presents.”

The project has been funded in the recently announced Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s 2015 science investment round which helps boost New Zealand’s productivity and competitiveness.