Fonterra wants to “restock the cupboard” with new nutrition solutions and supplements to meet consumers’ changing dietary needs in a post-covid world.
Fonterra’s new CEO for global markets, Judith Swales, said that after a lot of travel in Asia, Japan, and the United States, it was becoming clear that consumers were becoming more aware of the need to take more responsibility for their own health.
“They have realised that governments can’t protect them completely and that they need to take better care of themselves.”
Along with the fact that people were getting older in most developed markets, there was a growing group of consumers who had good incomes and wanted to live a long, healthy later life.
In the meantime, Fonterra’s new products are the result of research and development done before covid. These products are just starting to hit the market.
These included “Sure Protein,” a protein supplement with a trademark, and the BioKoDelab brand, which was made to improve eyesight and brain health.
Probiotics and proteins were the two things that people were most interested in learning more about for the post-covid wellness market.
“The protein component is becoming more and more known for its value in helping older people keep their muscle mass, which often goes down as they age,” Swales said.
Research has shown that muscle mass can drop by 1% a year between the ages of 40 and 45, and this can speed up to 3% a year after 60.
“When I went to Japan, it was clear that people there are very aware of the need for more protein, and many products have protein added to them.”
About a third of the people in Japan are over 65, which is one of the highest percentages in the world. At the same time, Japan’s population keeps going down. It went down by 820,000 people last year, and there are no signs that it will stop.
“It’s likely at the oldest end of the age range, but it shows where other markets are going.”
Fonterra sees more potential with long-term clients in Japan. Because Japan’s population is shrinking, these clients also want to grow in south-east Asia.
A study that came out last year showed how adding more protein from dairy to the diets of seniors can help improve muscle mass and bone density.
Based on a study of 7100 Australian care home residents with an average age of 86, those who ate 1.5 times more dairy products fell 10% less often than those in the control group, who fell 60% more often and hurt themselves.
People over 65 who fall and break their hips are said to cost Australasia about $1 billion a year.
Due to more muscle mass and stronger bones, people who ate a lot of dairy were more stable.
By 2050, the number of people over 65 around the world is expected to double, from 1 billion today to 2 billion.
Fonterra is also looking into its library of more than 300 probiotic cultures. They have already found and protected two probiotic strains, LactoBHN001 and BifidoBHN019. These strains are meant to improve gut health and reduce gut infections.
The ability to put probiotics in capsules so they don’t break down on the way to the human gut has changed the game. It makes it possible for them to be put into other products.
Swales said that a client from Asia wants to add a “shot” of probiotics to coffee, for example.
“As we learn more about the brain-gut health axis, we’re trying to find more strains that are good for health there.”
Swales said that she didn’t see much evidence that dairy production was going up all over the world. It might be harder to tell in the USA, though.
Fonterra recently invested in the Dutch company Royal DSM to speed up research and development in precision fermentation. By combining Fonterra’s dairy knowledge with DSM’s fermentation techniques, synthetic milk production can be looked into.
“We don’t see it as an either/or situation,” she said. “Quality dairy products are in high demand, and there are still another two billion people who will need nutritional products.”
She said that because goats and sheep produce less milk than cows, it was unlikely that the co-op would invest in these kinds of businesses in the coming years.
