Our scientific and collaborative approach
Scientifically exploring the effects of our products to provide trustworthy documentation that supports our customers – this is what truly distinguishes Arla Foods Ingredients as a supplier in health, performance and medical contexts.
It’s an approach that is fundamental to our way of doing business – providing our customers with highly developed pre-clinical and clinical evidence they can use to ensure the success of new and existing formulas. And as you might expect, ensuring scientific excellence at Arla Foods Ingredients stays at the forefront of the industry requires a concerted effort.
Close collaboration with universities and leading research institutes
Concentrated effort is put into structuring the way we manage clinical studies and how we document the effects of our products. Here, we continually refine our project model, adopting best practices and optimising current methodologies. Part of this effort is aimed at strengthening the way we collaborate with the research community, understanding their priorities and participating closely in their activities rather than simply relying on what we can learn by reading papers and reports.
Nutritional science in our DNA
Science is part of our Arla Foods Ingredients DNA. Besides an active collaboration with universities and leading research institutes, we also organise research seminars, customer scientific seminars, networks and ideation sessions to envision, inspire and share know-how and ideas within nutritional science.
Our research seminars play a pivotal role as precursors of our clinical studies. We hold these seminars with a large number of speakers invited from universities and hospitals in Denmark and abroad to discuss the current state of the science. A relevant topic is selected, and Arla Foods Ingredients staff are invited from all of our units to share knowledge, become inspired and gain useful networking contacts.
We also organise customer scientific seminars such as the “Beijing Seminar”, where we host key opinion leaders from around the world to discuss the latest science and how whey proteins can support medical, health and sports nutrition.
Additionally, we hold monthly internal meetings known as the “Nutrition Science Network” for our scientific staff who work with nutrition. This is a forum for sharing nutrition science know-how – with emphasis on digging deeply into the details rather than focusing on the commercial aspects of what we do.
”Science Development Days” are yet another venue for ideation, status updates and reviewing how we work with pre-clinical and clinical studies at Arla Foods Ingredients. Held annually, the emphasis is on brainstorming and discussions around new ideas for research.
Exchanging know-how and ideas at such forums is important, but it is still only one aspect of maintaining our lead in health and performance science. Keeping up with research conducted far beyond our own company and its partners is also key to directing our own study engagement: What is known today, what has yet to be explored, and where might our products and know-how be used?
