Arla Foods Ingredients says its new infant formula immunity ingredient, Lacprodan OPN-10, has been backed by a new clinical trial.
Feeding babies with infant formula enriched with Lacprodan OPN-10 supported their immune development, according to the results of the trial conducted by China’s Fundan University Hospital and the University of California at Davis.
Lacprodan OPN-10 is made from the whey protein osteopontin, a bioactive component associated with the maturation of the infant immune system.
Osteopontin is found in much higher concentrations in human milk than in bovine milk, meaning infants fed regular formula have a limited intake compared with their breastfed counterparts.
Arla Foods Ingredients says it has developed and patented the purification of osteopontin from cow’s milk and its application in infant and follow-on formulas, making it possible to create products with the same concentration of osteopontin as breast milk.
“The development of Lacprodan OPN-10 is part of the quest to create infant formula that is more like breast milk,” Lotte Neergaard Jacobsen, a nutrition scientist at Arla Foods Ingredients, said.
“The results from this clinical study show that we have moved a step closer to achieving this.
“Osteopontin in the form of Lacprodan OPN-10 could be a significant missing link in creating infant formula that can deliver a similar level of immune protection to that offered by mother’s milk.”
Researchers conducted a double-blind randomised clinical trial in which Chinese infants aged between one and six months were fed either regular infant formula or infant formula supplemented with Lacprodan OPN-10, with both groups compared with a reference group of breastfed babies.
According to Arla, the results showed that the babies who were given infant formula supplemented with Lacprodan OPN-10 experienced a similar number of days of fever to those fed breast milk, and a reduced number of days of fever compared with a control group fed ordinary infant formula.
The study also demonstrated that Lacprodan OPN-10 is safe for use in infant formula, Arla said.
The findings from the as-yet unpublished study were presented at the 2nd International Conference on Nutrition & Growth in Barcelona, Spain.
