Raising the bar: Vinamilk inks strategic partnerships with six ingredient giants, wins Purity Award for clean-label products

27-Jun-2023 - Last updated on 27-Jun-2023 at 14:59 GMT

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To keep pace with the changing needs of consumers, the Vietnamese dairy company has secured the expertise of ingredient suppliers including DSM, Beneo and Chr. Hansen as it seeks to bring ‘milk powder closer to the golden standard of breast milk’.

Six leading nutrition and bioscience companies have joined forces with Vinamilk to provide a range of services – from market intelligence to ingredient supply – to the dairy giant.

DSM (dsm-firmenich), Chr. Hansen, Beneo, Gnosis, AAK and Kanematsu have agreed to partner with the company on strategic initiatives aimed at strengthening Vinamilk’s position in the early life nutrition segment. The Asian dairy giant is hoping to deliver products with ‘superior formulations’ while maintaining its standards in purity.

DairyReporter approached Vinamilk on what the scope of the partnerships would entail, and found out that each of the six companies will:

Supply nutrient ingredients for Vinamilk’s infant powder products. “These involve all nutrient break-throughs with demonstrated beneficial impact on infants and children across a range of health areas,” a company spokesperson told us. Ingredients to be supplied include Bifidobacterium BB-12 and probiotic LGG from Chr. Hansen; Human Milk Oligosaccharides (HMOs), fructooligosaccharides (FOS) and inulin from DSM; and nvitamin K2-7 (also known as MK-7) from Gnosis.
Support Vinamilk in educating Vietnamese consumers on nutrition, with ‘a strong team of researchers’ and taking into account the latest research.
Provide the dairy giant’s marketing and R&D teams with market intelligence and insights on legislation and application technology
Inform Vinamilk about ‘new and innovative’ science-backed ingredients

Commenting on the partnerships, a Vinamilk spokesperson told DairyReporter: “As a leading dairy producer in Vietnam, Vinamilk has always been at the forefront of innovation, introducing new products and technologies to meet the changing needs of consumers. We have also placed a strong emphasis on quality control, ensuring that our products meet the highest standards of safety and quality. These values have helped Vinamilk to build a strong reputation in the industry and earn the trust of consumers and partners around the world. With the collaboration from partners, we will keep our mission to keep innovation as a vital element, to deliver the best possible nutrition to consumers.”

The company also recently claimed a Purity Award for its entire range of infant and early nutrition products, e.g. Optimum Gold, YokoGold, ColosGold, Pedia Kenji, Dielac Grow Plus, Dielac Alpha, and Dielac Alpha Gold. Bestowed by US NPO Clean Label Project, the program evaluates products for substances that would never be found on a product label, such as industrial and environmental toxins and contaminants that have the long-term potential to adversely affect health and well-being. The results of the tested products are then compared to those of the best-selling products in the same product category via benchmarked data. “To win a Purity Award, products not only need to have safe ingredients and be strictly controlled from input materials to finished products, but also pay attention to the transparency of information on the packaging,” a Vinamilk spokesperson told us. “Achieving these certifications is a great encouragement for Vinamilk to continue to fulfil its commitment to bring nutritional products of international standards to Vietnamese people, especially children.”

Clean labels: Why it matters

According to FMCG Gurus, 74% of global consumers consider it important for foods to be 100% natural, and 71% would trust clean-label claims on packaging. But less than a third (29%) were sceptical, meaning that manufacturers should be looking to provide claims that are easy to understand and/or are scientifically-backed.

FMCG Gurus states that the most influential claims were products that were free from artificial ingredients (67%), included ‘real’ ingredients (65%) and non-GMO (65%) “Consumers want fresh, natural ingredients as they feel better-for-you and are more health-enhancing than artificial and preserved alternatives,” the analysts explained.

Source: FMCG Gurus: Clean Label and Naturalness - Global Report