Ireland's Functional Nutrition Ambition
Walk into any high-end gym, health food shop or pharmacy and you will encounter the quiet triumph of Irish dairy innovation. The protein powders, the recovery drinks, the specialised infant formulas - many contain ingredients that originated as waste.
Whey was once a problem to solve. When you make cheese, roughly 90 percent of the milk volume drains away as a thin, slightly acidic liquid. For most of dairy history, this was either fed to pigs, spread on fields or simply discharged. It was a cost, not an asset.
Today, the most advanced whey fractions command prices that would astonish anyone who remembers the disposal era. Clear whey isolates for premium sports nutrition. Lactoferrin for immune support and infant formula. Alpha-lactalbumin for clinical applications. Glycomacropeptide for metabolic disorders. The transformation is complete: what was once effluent is now among the most valuable outputs of the dairy sector.
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Published by The Dairy Mail, Dairy Connect: https://www.dairy-connect.com/the-dairy-mail/part-3-from-by-product-to-billion-euro-asset/
