Specialty Fat for Infant Formula Benefits Infant Bone Strength

InFat, a beta-palmitate fat ingredient said to mimic the fat composition of human milk fat, may benefit infant bone strength, according to a new study published in the journal Calcified Tissue International.

InFat is a unique fat said to enable easy digestion and optimize uptake of calcium, fat recovery, and energy, and is especially designed for stage 1, 2, and 3 infant formulas. InFat is an ingredient from Advanced Lipids, a joint venture of lipids specialists AAK (Malmo, Switzerland) and Enzymotec (Migdal HaEmeq, Israel), who sponsored the trial.

The randomized, double-blind trial studied the effect of 12 weeks of feeding InFat-infused formula to infants. The study included 83 term infants: 58 formula-fed and 25 breast-fed. The formula-fed infants were separated into two groups, one of which received the InFat formula, while the other received a control formula containing a standard vegetable oil mix.

Bone strength was measured by speed of sound using quantitative ultrasound (QUS), and anthropometric parameters, at 6 and 12 weeks postnatal age. Researchers found that the InFat group had significantly higher bone-strength parameters compared to infants in the standard vegetable oil control group.

“This clearly indicates that InFat benefits bone strength parameters,” stated Yael Lifshitz, PhD, director of R&D for Enzymotec Infant Nutrition. “Bone speed of sound of the newborns fed the formula with InFat was significantly higher than that of newborns fed the control formula, and comparable to that of breast-fed newborns.”

“This trial marks an important milestone in our clinical development program, positioning InFat as a premium fat blend for infant formulas,” added Tzafra Cohen, PhD, CEO of Advanced Lipids.

Other benefits of InFat are said to be reduced stool hardness, reduced calcium soaps formation, increased calcium retention, larger skeletal mineral deposition, and increased fat absorption and fat recovery, according to clinical studies in preterm and term infants.