Arla Foods Ingredients: A Leading Whey Ingredient Supplier With Great Products!

Are you looking for some high-quality ingredients for biscuits? Or maybe you would like to get inspired on how dairy-based ingredients can help you jump-start your biscuit business? If that is the case, then I have a wonderful article in store for you today as we will be looking at Arla Foods Ingredients, a leading whey ingredient supplier and subsidiary of Arla Foods amba the largest producer of dairy products in Scandinavia!

Arla Foods Ingredients is a Danish multinational company which produces functional and nutritional whey proteins, milk minerals, lactose and whey permeate that can promote nutrition, improve texture, prolong freshness and increase yield for industrial food products. They are part of the largest producers of dairy products in Scandinavia, Arla Foods amba, so if you are an entrepreneur looking to start a biscuit business, partnering-up with Arla Foods Ingredients is a safe choice. In today's article, which will make a fine addition to our magazine, I'll be taking a look at the multitude of brands and products the company has to offer, as well as giving you a brief overview of each. As for how to contact the company, you will be able to do that at the end of the article. In the meantime, let us check-out what Arla Foods Ingredients has to offer!

Arla Foods Ingredients: Solutions for the baking industry

So, to kick-off the article, I thought it would be a good idea to give you an overview of what Arla Foods Ingredients is and how their solutions aid the biscuit industry and, in-turn, your business as well. So, as previously mentioned, Arla Foods Ingredients is a multinational, Danish company which produces ingredients for industrial dairy and bakery products. 

Arla Foods Ingredients is a daughter company of a much larger conglomerate, Arla Foods amba, which has around 30 different brands under its belt. Each brand focuses on different areas of the dairy industry. Arla Foods Ingredients specifically focuses on supplying dairy and whey-based ingredients.

The company's products and solutions are divided into several categories, which are: early life nutrition, medical nutrition, sports nutrition, health foods, dairy, bakery and affordable nutrition. I will, of course, be focusing on the bakery segment of their business, as that is of most use to the frequent visitors to the Biscuit People magazine!

So, which baking industry solutions do they have on offer? Well, their baking industry portfolio is comprised of  two mains product groups: Nutrilac® protein solutions and Variolac® whey permeate, both of which have special uses for different occasions and problems that might arise in baking. 

What is whey-based protein though?

Whey-based solutions for the bakery industry are functional whey proteins that offer a powerful, clean-label way to improve the quality of your products. Cakes, biscuits, snack bars, custards, wafers or bread, these are just some examples of bakery products that can be improved with whey-based ingredients. The great news is that Arla Foods Ingredients’ solutions can be implemented without completely changing one's production setup. In this way you will get access to an efficient way to enhance your products, making them stand-out in the ever-saturated baking industry.

As mentioned before Arla Foods Ingredients’ solutions for the bakery industry are divided into two main product groups: Nutrilac® and Variolac. Since these solutions deserve categories of their own, I will first look at Nutrilac® and see how it can help your products reach their full potential.

Nutrilac®: A protein solution that will define your baking

The Nutrilac® protein solutions can be used to substitute eggs, enhance the texture of your biscuits or cakes, incorporate air and keep the moistness and freshness of your bakery products for longer periods of time. The Nutrilac® protein solutions can also help you create gluten-free products and enrich your biscuits with protein or calcium, ensuring that they are as healthy as they can get.

I realise this is a rather large list of things you can do with Nutrilac® to enhance the taste and nutrition of your products (or even replace some ingredients entirely). So, for starters, let us see how you can use Nutrilac® to substitute eggs in your recipes

Using Nutrilac® as a natural substitute for eggs

Nutrilac® is a price-stable protein solution which has properties similar to eggs. If you would like to decrease your dependency on eggs for any number of reasons (maybe it is hard to organise transportation or to source real eggs) then you can use the Nutrilac® protein solution instead. In fact one 20 kg bag of Nutrilac® substitutes 4000 eggs, and Nutrilac® doesn’t need refrigerated transport or storage.  Furthermore, sensory evaluation of the Nutrilac® protein solution has shown that the protein offers several quality improvements!

For instance, if alongside biscuits you are producing cakes as well, then you will want to know that Nutrilac® can keep cakes moister and fresher during their shelf-life, along with making them less fragile and more resilient. Along with that, Nutrilac® offers several processing advantages too. Nutrilac®, as a substitute for eggs, becomes quite an alluring business proposition. To summarize what I have said above, the benefits of using Nutrilac® as an egg substitute are:

• Less egg dependency supporting the transition to cage-free (animal welfare and it also makes your products more suitable for vegetarians)

• Higher food safety (pathogenic-free)

• Natural ingredients

• High-quality whey proteins

• Extended shelf life compared to fresh eggs

• Risk management (fluctuations in egg prices, supply security)

As for cost savings, which is also sure to interest, with Nutrilac® you can save on:

• Ambient transportation - no need for cooling

• Less storage space needed

• No refrigeration needed
  
  
  

Using Nutrilac® for air incorporation - perfect for sponge cakes!

This might seem weird at first, but air incorporation is important for the baking industry, especially if you produce sponge cakes! Air can make your cakes light and fluffy, and Nutrilac® helps bind the air in a whipped batter. The more air that is whipped into the batter system, the better, as it will make your cakes extra light. The Nutrilac® whey-based protein can not only substitute eggs, but it can also efficiently whip air into your batter during processing and baking.

But how is it able to do that? Well, the key to air incorporation lies in the ability of Arla Foods Ingredients' proteins to build stable structures which can trap air bubbles inside the batter. Due to this optimised air incorporation, you will have aerated, high-volume cakes at the end of the baking process. Remember how I have mentioned that Nutrilac® can be used as a substitute for eggs?

Well, the other important ingredient that sponge cakes need is, of course, eggs. With Nutrilac®  you can achieve multi-benefits, as Nutrilac® also serves as an egg substitute. But the advantages do not stop here, as even custards can greatly benefit from whey-based protein solutions.

How to use Nutrilac to produce gluten-free products

Are you losing too many customers because of your dependence on gluten? Worry no longer! You can get rid of gluten and keep the same, authentic taste of your biscuits and cakes using Arla's whey-based Nutrilac protein.

Now, it is no easy task to remove gluten from your recipes. Gluten, although it can be harmful to many people, has its advantages. But so many businesses and brands in the industry are moving to gluten-free production that in recent times, having free-from products has become a rule rather than an exception. Thanks to Nutrilac, however, you can create those gluten-free biscuits with an appealing taste and texture that at the same time use no eggs!

As mentioned above, gluten has its advantages. Arla's Nutrilac whey-based proteins compensate for this by creating structures that closely resemble those when using traditional wheat-based products and flours, however, this variant will be much safer and healthier for your customer's consumption. The best way to use Nutrilac proteins is when you are baking short pastries, brownies and pizza. This is because:

• The dough and batter are stable and easy to handle
• The final products have an appealing texture, taste and bite
• The crumb structure is soft and moist

Using Nutrilac® to enrich your biscuits and cakes

If you can make your products tastier, you will attract a lot of new customers. People looking for healthy alternatives to their favorite snacks, parents concerned about their children's health, people with chronic diseases, all these groups are potential new customers for your business. Thanks to Arla Foods Ingredients whey-based proteins, you can enrich your products with proteins and calcium, and other beneficial nutrients from natural dairy sources. This can lead to approved nutrition claims on the packaging.

Bakery products are some of the best things you can enrich with proteins calcium and other nutrients. These beneficial nutrients can help your customers stay in shape, fit and maintain their good health. And the best thing about Arla Foods Ingredients' protein solutions? They come from natural sources! The most common baking products that can be enriched are bars, biscuits, cakes, bread, or crispy snacks.

There are, however, certain risks to increasing the protein values of your biscuits and snacks. Having too much protein can result in the final product being dry and crumbly with a bad taste. That is why you should be careful when adding protein to your products. With Arla Foods Ingredients' solutions, you can increase the protein contents of your cakes and cookies by 15% without altering their taste and retaining the softness and moisture.

What is even better, the protein content of certain recipes can be raised to 40%. This is due to the quality of these proteins, which can be used in many applications. Depending on the local legislation, your products might even qualify for certain nutrition claims. For example, if you would like to verify your products as having "high protein", 20% of the product's energy value would have to come from the protein itself, which is easily achievable with Arla Foods Ingredients' products.

I cannot even begin to stress just how important calcium is. It is a staple part of every diet, as it strengthens your bones, teeth and helps your immune system. Arla Foods Ingredients' calcium enrichment protein comes from natural sources. The most suitable products for calcium enrichment are bread, cookies, biscuits, and cakes. Some cakes can, for example, contain as much as 200 mg of calcium per serving, which amounts to about 25% of the RDI (recommended daily intake) of calcium. Once the calcium fully dissolves, it has no impact what-so-ever on taste. It even contributes to a short crumb texture in biscuits. Other benefits are that:

• Enriched bakery products may qualify for an approved nutrition claim

• Whey protein and calcium are natural and highly bioavailable

• Sensory appeal is largely unchanged and, in some cases, improved

Variolac®: Replace costly milk solids with whey permeate 

Last but certainly not least, we have the Variolac® whey permeate. Whey permeate is a fast-moving ingredient spreading into many different bakery products, such as biscuits, cakes and everything in-between. But how come? Well, whey permeate is the most cost-effective dairy solid currently on the market, which can replace whey powder, lactose and skim milk powder in almost any recipe. What is even more attractive about this product is that its prices do not fluctuate nearly as much as some other dairy products.

Lucky for you, Arla Foods Ingredients is one of the largest suppliers of whey permeate on the market! They have production in Argentina, Denmark and Norway which produce large quantities of the said product. The products are uniform across all production facilities and they are also Kosher & Halal compliant. But how does whey permeate work?

Well, if you try to replace, for example, milk powder or some other milk solids with whey permeate, it will act as a bulking agent with a sweet and milky flavour. Variolac® offers a superior experience compared to other whey permeate products on the market.  Variolac®  brings excellent taste and quality, and due to the free-flowing powder properties and 1:1 replacement capability,  Variolac can be easily implemented into your production line. To put it more simply, you should choose Arla Foods Ingredients’ Variolac® because of the following reasons:

• Pleasant and milky flavour

• Cost-saving opportunities

• Excellent powder properties which facilitate easy implementation

• Arla Foods Ingredients is a global leader with  a high and reliable supply

You are probably itching to get your hands on all these top-tier dairy products. If so, contact Arla Foods Ingredients immediately and get in touch with their experts! They can give you pointers as to which of their proteins and products would be best for your business. If you partner-up with Arla Foods Ingredients, success will soon follow, and you will have a constant supply of great dairy ingredients and protein solutions. And in today's world, quality means everything, so if you are looking to enter the big league, you have to be properly equipped.

Link for bakery page: https://www.arlafoodsingredients.com/bakery/