Innovating for people and planet
Our mission to discover the wonders of whey and milk is an ambitious one. It takes us to places we haven’t been before. But that is what is needed if we want to be truly innovative – impacting people around the globe and our planet.
Meaningful, value-adding innovation is evident in our mindset and approach. When we develop new products, it is only the beginning of the journey. We explore a challenge from every angle to find the right properties and functionalities you need from whey and our milk powder solutions.
We have created a world-class Innovation Centre by linking innovation, supply chain, and commercial processes.
Our Values
R&D values
We have a set of values which describe our innovation capability.
Value-adding innovation video
Video01:28Watch the video to better understand how we work with research and development.
Our science areas
To increase efficiency, identify new opportunities for fractionation and processing, and minimize environmental impact via mechanism-driven process and technological understanding
- Process Analytical Technology (PAT)
- Process technologies
- Cleaning & sustainability
NUTRITION RESEARCH
To improve life-long nutrition and to alleviate disease progression through nutritional solutions
- Gut Health
- Metabolic Health
- Muscle Health
- Brain Health
Nutrition science across Arla Foods Ingredients
Our scientists are highly educated, experienced researchers within multiple fields of nutrition and health. We adhere to established codes of ethics and conduct nutrition and health research using valid and state-of-the-art methodologies.
Working with us provides, for example:
- High-quality pre-clinical and clinical evidence demonstrating effective and safe use of our ingredients in relevant target populations.
- Scientific documentation, ingredient knowhow and dedicated support to help meet product documentation demands.
Learn more here.
Capabilities
Capabilities
Welcome to the Innovation Centre at Arla Foods Ingredients, an experimental innovation powerhouse where we discover and deliver all the wonders of whey and milk.
Here, we research and develop new products to promote better nutrition & health, functional benefits and more sustainable solutions.
It is a centre for the latest and most advanced dairy technology, enabling us to develop more robust, gentle and sustainable processes with world-leading standards for food safety and quality. Together with industry partners, universities and customers, we use the centre to discover, fine-tune and rapidly deliver on ideas in close collaboration with our colleagues in supply chain and commercial functions.
Our innovation centre
Located right between the raw materials source and Danmark Protein, our flagship production plant in Denmark.
We chose this location because of the burning need for superior nutritional ingredients which require an ability to quickly and effectively take good ideas to market.
It is designed to give an impression of experimental space, of processes being developed and refined. It is about taking ideas from the lab to the pilot plant to the production plant.
World-class pilot facilities
Our state-of-the-art pilot facilities make it possible to conduct small-scale trials in an environment mimicking production. These trials are essential to support new product development and production.
We test new processes on a large scale in the pilot production before committing to more significant investments at the production sites.
This means we can go to market faster, make beginner mistakes without disrupting existing production, and test new products at a lower investment.
Our State-of-the-art pilot facilities
Video00:50
Multidisciplinary laboratories
In our multidisciplinary laboratories equipped with the latest technologies, we work together to find, explore and unearth new ingredients backed by science.
Our spacious and open laboratory space allows us to use in-house state-of-the art technologies and equipment in a dynamic environment that promotes collaboration.
Essentially, we work together in multiple research areas/disciplines providing the basic scientific knowledge required to bring new products to market.
Our application centres
We run high-tech Application Centres in Argentina, China and Denmark. In Denmark, the centre is located right beside our head office.
Our highly flexible, small-scale equipment can be rapidly adjusted to simulate specific production processes. This means we can carry out fast and effective application trials, dramatically shortening the time to market of new products.
Often together with dedicated customers, the application centre makes it possible to test ingredients in final applications such as cheese, yogurt, beverages, protein bars, etc.
How we innovate
How we Innovate
Innovation at Arla Foods Ingredients can be described as “the practical implementation of new, good ideas in a way that creates significant value”.
Three phases define our innovation process:
- Discover where we come up with the core idea and assess its potential
- Develop where we refine the processes for the new ingredient, and
- Deploy where we optimise and scale the ingredient in production.
More about our core innovation process:
Our innovative mindset has led us to discover many wonders of whey
Open innovation
Open Innovation
“Open innovation” is part of our way of innovating.
It’s a lot about partnerships.
It’s about connecting with the best researchers, technology suppliers or customers.
To maintain the highest levels of innovation, quality and commercial applicability, we connect with the best of our customers, tech suppliers and research experts. And we focus on the most promising projects.
We partner with 3 groups:
How to collaborate
Collaborate with us?
We try our best to be a competent and agile collaboration partner
If you’ve got a promising idea for a new ingredient or functionality, a new way of testing or producing milk-derived ingredients, we´re always interested in opening our doors and getting something started.
