Ready-to-drink protein beverages are a growing product category, but they often come with off-tastes such as bitterness or astringency. For brands, the choice is often between adding ingredients to formulation to improve off-taste or not adding anything to keep the label ‘clean’.

Novozymes’s new ingredient, called Formea® Prime, was developed to help brands solve this conundrum. The ingredient is a protease enzyme that builds on Novozymes’ enzymatic Formea platform, which was developed for protein drinks.

“Formea Prime provides all the benefits of whey protein hydrolysates, such as improved stability and absorption – but without the problems of bitter taste,” explains Christian Schmock, Head of Business Unit for Food Platforms at Novozymes. “With Formea Prime, brands do not need to add ingredients to secure the taste that consumers want.”

According to a 2019 report by 3A Consulting Group, the global sports nutrition market is expected to reach $26 billion in 2023, with a CAGR of 11%. The reason for this rapid expansion is that the consumer market is changing from including only sportsmen to everyone, for example aging people, who also seek to buy protein fortified drinks in order to retain muscle mass.

“New consumers are looking for a larger variety of products with higher protein content, better sensorial experience and more convenient products such as shelf-stable drinks. Consumers also care about the environmental impact of food production, and want cleaner label products. This is exactly what Formea Prime helps manufacturers to overcome,” says Schmock.