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To meet the 2050 challenge of feeding a rapidly expanding human population, we must carefully consider how to produce enough protein. Because, at least with current supply realities, a significant move to plant-based protein sources simply wouldn’t be sustainable.

For more than 20 years, research firm New Nutrition Business has been monitoring and reporting on trends in the food industry. The protein trend is one of the largest, longest waves we’ve seen – and it hasn’t peaked yet.

The University of Aberdeen is producing an industry-facing report that explores the challenges and opportunities faced by industry in producing high-protein food solutions for healthy ageing.

In June 2017, the International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN) published an updated position paper on protein and exercise. The paper looks to provide an objective, critical review of current knowledge in terms of protein-enriched diets and their optimal use and effect on athletes and others engaged in regular exercise.

According to a recent, large-scale study we’ve conducted, not enough people know about the benefits of whey protein. But they’re keen to learn more – and the European Whey Processors’ Association (EWPA) is helping to address that need.

As we age, our muscle mass slowly reduces. What can be done to remedy this – or at least slow down its pace? And why might whey protein be particularly well suited to the task?

Vitamin B12 may be a small part of mankind’s overall need for nutrition, but it’s a vital one. Deficiency in this essential, water-soluble nutrient has major health implications. With an aging population, the rise of veganism, and socioeconomically imposed, unfavorable dietary habits, vitamin B12 deficiency is receiving more and more attention from scientists. But could cow’s milk and milk products such as whey become a new, more cost-efficient and highly effective way to counter B12 deficiency?

Study results indicated that low protein infant formula, for instance, enriched with alpha-lactalbumin – the most abundant protein in human milk – may slow down the incidence of obesity in children, and have a range of health effects such as enhanced protection and promoting a healthy gut,

How much do we really know about how people perceive whey protein? How do they consume it? And to what degree are whey protein hydrolysates – a ‘pre-digested’ form whose consumption allows amino acids to be absorbed by the body more rapidly than intact proteins – recognised and understood?

Today, the market for milk products is a far larger one than the market for products based on whey, the by-product of cheese manufacturing. Around the world, everyone is familiar with milk, even if they don’t (or can’t) drink it. By comparison, there are still relatively few people who know what whey is, or have the faintest idea of its benefits. But this wasn’t always the case…