IFF announced today the launch of Nurica in North America, providing dairy producers a new way to meet consumer health needs with a premium product.

Nurica harnesses the lactose present in milk to naturally generate the highest yield of prebiotic galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS) fibers in situ, resulting in significantly reduced sugar and lactose levels while bringing balanced sweetness and natural milk clean notes.

Nurica is a breakthrough innovation for the dairy industry and is marketed under the Danisco range of food solutions that is now part of the IFF family.

Health and wellness are more important to consumers than ever, and food and beverages – including dairy – are a core part of their health journeys. Today’s consumers have placed an exceptional focus on their digestive health, including managing lactose intolerance and optimising fiber intake, weight management and sugar/carbohydrate reduction.

Until now, it has been difficult for dairy producers to accommodate all these needs while maintaining product quality and profitability.

With Nurica, dairy manufacturers now have the ability to solve these consumer challenges in fluid milk products and other neutral dairy applications.

In these applications, there is no need for major process changes or additional equipment. Nurica is a simple, one-step solution that can be added directly into milk processing and ensures consistent product because the GOS fibers created remain stable throughout shelf life.

“Nurica is an enzymatic solution that enables manufacturers to naturally produce dietary fibers in the form of GOS by transforming lactose that is present in dairy products,” said Collette Lentz, regional industry leader, Dairy Enzymes, North America, IFF.

“GOS fibers have shown to increase the population of health-promoting gut bacteria species. With an array of opportunities, the Nurica enzyme has potential for unique innovations related to prebiotics and improving digestive health.

For many years, GOS has been added to selected premium milk categories such as infant products because of cost considerations. Now, we are excited to bring these benefits to the mainstream product offering.”

In application trials, the Nurica lactase has shown no detectable negative impact on product quality. The outcome is natural and delicious, stable, high-quality neutral dairy products, innovatively tailored to consumer health trends.

IFF produces enzymes that deliver sustainable innovations across a wide variety of food and beverage products.