Healthy NZ drink tackles Coca-Cola

By SIMON COLLINS science reporter



New Zealand dairy farmers are taking on the corporate might of Coca-Cola with new, healthy drinks based on milk proteins instead of sugar.

The farmer-owned Fonterra co-operative aims to take advantage of bans on soft-drinks in school vending machines introduced in the past year in California, Chicago, Philadelphia and New York.

Other American states and cities are considering similar bans to counter an epidemic of childhood obesity.

Simon Leitch, manager of a Fonterra business unit called B-cubed (Better Brighter Beverages), says the unit has started selling water spiked with a clear whey protein as a sports drink in the US, Japan and Australia.

It extracts the protein at Fonterra's Lichfield cheese factory near Tokoroa and sells it to drink manufacturers in the three countries, who sell the drinks under their own brand names.

After testing the market with the sports drink, the next target is the average US household.

Americans drink an average of 212 litres of soft drink a year each.

Showing a picture of a clear water drink spiked with whey protein at an Innovation Voyage event in Auckland on Friday, Mr Leitch told the audience: "My vision is that your children will be able to consume beverages that look like that instead of pure sugar-and-water drinks."

He believes the product will earn tens of millions of dollars for Fonterra within five years if it is endorsed by the co-operative after a two-year pilot period that ends at the end of this year.

If approved, the project would be a major gamble for the company, moving it into the intensely competitive popular drinks market.

"We are dealing with beverage companies that do not traditionally buy milk," Mr Leitch said. "In that sense it's revolutionary for us."

He said a huge trend in developed countries towards healthier foods had been aided by bans on soft-drink machines in schools. "They are looking for replacement beverages to put in those vending machines."

In January, the American Academy of Paediatrics urged schools to restrict soft-drink sales, warning that every can of soft drink contained the equivalent of 10 teaspoons of sugar.

In the same month, Philadelphia's public schools, with 214,000 students, banned soft-drink sales from July 1. The schools' vending machines now sell fruit juice, water, milk and flavoured milk.

A nutrition educator at Philadelphia's Food Trust, Sandy Sherman, was quoted as saying: "There is not a good reason for soda to be sold in schools. It contributes to obesity, type 2 diabetes and dental cavities, and displaces milk drinking."

Mr Leitch said Fonterra's new protein-rich drink was not yet available in New Zealand because the ingredients were too expensive.

"They have to go into premium products," he said. "The whole challenge is to bring it into mass markets."

B-cubed is one of four businesses started or about to start in the new marketing and innovation division of the company's ingredients business, at its research centre in Palmerston North.

The manager of the new businesses, Nigel Little, told the Innovation Voyage event that the other three units aimed to produce a sugar substitute with a low glycaemic index so the body would digest it slowly, a biodegradable chewing gum and a high-protein feed for aquaculture.


SUGAR BANS

* New York: Banned soft-drinks, candy and sweet snacks in public school vending machines in June last year.

* California: Banned soft-drinks and junk-food sales in primary and junior high schools from January this year.

* Chicago: Banned soft-drinks, candy and other high-calorie snacks from school vending machines in April.

* Philadelphia: Banned soft-drink sales in public schools from July.

* Others: Bans are being considered in about 20 other US states.