Dairy products: the calcium challenge

摘要

The global market for bone health foods is now worth US2.5Bn dollar, and is expected to grow at over 4 percent per annum. Here DR. GERHARD GERSTNER, technical service manager special salts for Jungbunzlauer Ladenburg GmbH, discusses important technological as well as economical aspects of calcium fortification in dairy products with a focus on micronised tricalcium citrate. As everybody knows that dairy products usually contain substantial amounts of calcium, they have been and still are an ideal food to be fortified with extra calcium to meet nutritional needs by providing larger amounts in one single serving. However, the feasibility of calcium addition has to be considered as technologically milk products represent a complex food matrix. This challenge drives mineral salt suppliers such as Jungbunzlauer to offer a range of different calcium salts to be able to tune them to food manufacturers' applications: tricalcium citrate, calcium gluconate and the new product development calcium lactate gluconate.