New Fast-Digesting Milk Protein Digests at a Speed Comparable to Whey, Company Says at IFT

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A new, fast-digesting milk protein will be introduced to the American market at the upcoming Institute of Food Technologists Annual Meeting and Food Expo in Chicago. The ingredient, SureProtein Fast MPC, was innovated by NZMP, the global ingredients brand of dairy cooperative Fonterra (Auckland, New Zealand). This new protein targets active lifestyle and sports customers.

SureProtein Fast MPC 4868 is NZMP’s latest milk protein concentrate innovation. According to the company, the ingredient “significantly increases the rate of amino acid digestion and absorption after consumption.” It is said to be an “optimal source of rapidly digestible milk proteins, providing muscles with a higher level of amino acids within the first two hours of consumption compared to standard milk protein offerings.”

The company highlights trials comparing the time it took, following consumption after exercise, to detect blood levels of amino acids from SureProtein Fast MPC 4868 (85% protein) compared to blood levels of amino acids from a whey protein isolate (90% protein). Whey protein is often considered the gold standard in sports nutrition because of its rapid absorption when consumed after exercise. In the comparative trials, SureProtein Fast MPC 4868 and the whey protein isolate performed similarly in terms of the speed of amino acid appearance in the blood over time.

In addition, 60 minutes after ingestion, both the whey protein isolate and SureProtein Fast MPC 4868 exhibited amino acid plasma concentration levels that were comparable to each other, “with no statistically significant difference between the two treatments,” the company says.

“Fast Milk Protein provides a new science story from which to engage consumers in the sports and healthy lifestyle segment, through taking Milk Protein Concentrate from a ‘slow’ protein to a ‘fast’ protein,” the company says on its website.