Infant milk formula
Milk is one of the most nutritionally complete foods, a fact reflected in it’s widespread use as a dietary supplement in many parts of the world. This quality is of utmost importance during the neonatal period in mammals when it is the only or primary nutrient source. However, the nutrient content of milk show considerable variation among species with respect to the individual components and appears to be related to the rate of growth of the offspring. The mother’s breast milk is known to constitute the best nourishment for neonates and infants. However, various situations exist in which synthetic preparations have to be used. Formulated milk for infants represented by formulated milk powder has been widely utilized as synthetic nutrient food for infants instead of bovine milk. This formulated milk for infants is mainly composed of bovine milk. The use of modified or “humanized” bovine milk in infant formulas designed to simulate human milk as a substitute or supplement, has long been a subject of continuing research.
The composition of bovine milk and human breast milk differ significantly with respect to total protein concentration, the nature of individual proteins and acid coagulability. In order to be able to produce milk baby foods, which can also be called formulas, bovine whey proteins must be accordingly added to the cow’s milk. A large number of infant milk formulas are based on proteins from cow’s milk. After being diluted, the cow’s milk is enriched with whey proteins, diverse carbohydrates such as lactose, dextrin, sucrose, maltose and starches, different mixtures of vegetable and animal fats, vitamins and minerals. These components are present in suitable amounts to meet the requirements of low birth weight infants or term healthy infants as a sole source of nutrition during the first and second semesters of life. The compositional differences provide the basis for enhanced nutritive and digestive qualities attributed to human milk so important in infant nutrition. In order to render its composition as close as possible to that of human milk, various improvements have been made on components such as protein, sugar, lipid, mineral, vitamin, etc. The substances or additives generally used to supplement the artificial (or synthetic) milk formulas include proteins such as casein, lactalbumin, lactoferrin, lysozyme, peptides or individual amino-acids, antibodies, in particular immunoglobulin-A, vitamins, such as vitamins C and D, fatty acids, mineral salts and the like. The purpose of supplementation with or addition of synthetic preparations is to reproduce the qualitative and quantitative composition of human milk.
There are many different infant nutritional formulas that are commercially available. These infant formulas comprise a range of nutrients to meet the nutritional needs of the growing infant, and typically include lipids, carbohydrates, protein, vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients helpful for optimal infant growth and development. Sometimes, infant formulas also contain isolated milk proteins, isolated vegetable proteins or protein hydrolyzates, from diverse sources such as casein, lactalbumin, soy and meat. Infants who are truly allergic to milk protein require infant milk formulas wherein the proteins are extensively hydrolyzed to contain a minimum of residual molecular structures. For non-allergic infants, an infant formula with reduced antigenicity has prophylactic benefits in that it can delay or prevent sensitization which could otherwise lead to clinical symptoms of allergy. The allergenic potential of cow milk-protein based formulas can be reduced by protein hydrolysis. Bovine milk contains about 3.5 g protein/100 mL, whereas, human milk averages about 1.2 g/100 mL. While the protein level of bovine milk can be readily reduced to that of human milk, the casein, whey and nonprotein nitrogen (NPN) differ significantly. Cow’s milk proteins, for example, (caseins and whey proteins) are numbered among these. Cow’s milk proteins, though, differ considerably from those of human milk. One of the essential differences exists in the ratio of casein to whey proteins. Whey powder or whey protein concentrates that are used in the production of milk baby foods are obtained exclusively from sweet whey. Sweet whey is produced by precipitation of caseins from milk by using the rennet enzyme (chymosin).