Adapting, sustaining and enhancing healthy eating patterns increases the chance of healthy living in adulthood
The toddler years are a period of the child's life where they move into a new stage of eating and drinking more independently leaving baby bottles behind. Adequate nutritional intake in the sensitive period of toddler development is a key determinant of health both in the short- and long-term perspective.
Toddlers use a lot of energy, and their small stomachs can’t hold enough food to keep them from getting hungry between meals. Due to their limited stomach capacity and high need for nutrients, nutrient-rich foods should be among those most commonly consumed to support the toddler’s proper growth and development.
Healthy food choices for toddlers should be nutritious and appetising. As toddlers develop food preferences of their own, it is the period when they start asking for some foods while rejecting others. This underlines the need to focus on many aspects when it comes to toddler nutrition.
A dynamic market with differentiated products
The toddler market is highly dynamic. Compared to the infant formula market, there is a much wider range of differentiated products and nutritional offerings for toddlers. That makes it a much broader marketing platform, with opportunities for high value growth. It is also a strategic platform for establishing brand recognition and ingredient positioning within the infant and child categories.
Healthy and tasty whey-based ingredients for toddlers
Arla Foods Ingredients delivers ingredients for tasty, healthy and appealing foods and drinks that meet parents’ requirements for healthy and convenient toddler products. These include Lacprodan® ALPHA-10, Capolac®, Lacprodan® MFGM-10 and Lacprodan® whey protein that supply the building blocks for continued growth and development of a toddler.
All these ingredients are suitable for toddler nutrition products such as drinks including growing up milks, biscuits, smoothies and yoghurts that match the product preferences of a toddler.
Lacprodan® ALPHA-10 has a high content of alpha-lactalbumin, rich in essential and conditionally essential amino acids. This is the dominant whey protein in human milk, comprising about 25% of the total protein content. Alpha-lactalbumin has a bifidogenic effect supporting a healthy gut flora.
Calcium is an essential nutrient for bone growth and maintenance and teeth mineralisation. Capolac® is a natural milk mineral with a high content of milk calcium (> 24%) and a calcium phosphate composition similar to bone and teeth. The EU and China* have recognised the positive effect of milk calcium on bone health, allowing the use of a milk calcium health claim on products containing Capolac®.
Phospholipids and gangliosides found in Lacprodan® MFGM-10 are lipids that play an important role in cognitive development. From birth to the age of two, the infant brain undergoes its most significant growth, reaching about 75% of adult weight. Phospholipids can be obtained from several sources but only bovine milk has a similar phospholipid profile to human milk. Results from a number of infant clinical trials have demonstrated a link between phospholipids, gangliosides and infant cognitive development (for more information see Lacprodan® MFGM-10).
Whey protein is a composite protein source with a high protein quality. Whey proteins are easily digestible and have the highest content of essential amino acids compared to other protein sources. Arla Foods Ingredients offers a wide portfolio of whey protein concentrate and whey protein isolate ingredients with a range of protein concentrations and lactose levels.
Related products: Lacprodan®ALPHA-10, Lacprodan® MFGM-10, Capolac®and Lacprodan® whey protein concentrate
*on food applications for +3 years
