The whey and milk ingredients BLOG

Bakery and Pastry

Bakery is a broad market that can be split into three main segments: cakes and pastries, biscuits, and croissants. Indulgence and on-the-go are two primary means of characterizing bakery consumption. Croissants, cakes or other pastries are often out-of-home impulse purchases, synonymous with pleasure and gratification. Innovation, marketing claims, and image are big levers that prompt sales and contribute to consumer satisfaction.

Dairy ingredients, especially butter, are highly valuable in the bakery industry. They bring taste, texture, and a nice colour to many products such as biscuits, cakes, and croissants. Strongly associated with a natural image, dairy ingredients also can be used as claims on packaging to better valorise baked goods products.

Market overview

The baked goods market has been experiencing steady growth for several years, driven by rising demand in Asia, the Middle East, and several emerging markets where urbanization, the expansion of the middle classes, and the westernization of eating habits are strongly boosting consumption. North America and Europe, although considered mature markets, remain the leading producing and consuming regions. They continue to shape the global market thanks to their historical weight, high consumption levels, and capacity for innovation, even if their growth is more moderate.

Across all markets, the innovation dynamic is driven by five major trends:

The naturalness of recipes and ingredients used (“made with fresh butter,” “fresh milk,” “fresh eggs,” clean label, organic).
The authenticity of recipes and know‑how, with a return to traditional methods.
Convenience, driven by the rise of snacking, single‑serve formats, and predominantly out‑of‑home consumption.
Premiumization, with higher-quality ingredient, more generous recipes, and a stronger emphasis on indulgence.
Originality in recipes, through new combinations of flavors and textures, as well as international influences.

Our range for biscuits, cakes and pastries

Pastry is a balance between an adapted texture, an accurate golden colour, a buttery taste and a competitive price. LACTALIS Ingredients places particular emphasis on developing adapted dairy solutions with optimal functionalities.

We offer a wide range of ingredients for this application:

Butter and concentrated butter with an adapted texture to bring creaminess and an authentic buttery taste
Lactose, sweet whey powder and whey permeate as cost-competitive filler and browning agents
WPC35 as a source of functional and competitive solids
WPC80 for protein enrichment
Skimmed and whole milk powders
Buttermilk to give a soft texture and extended shelf life.

Our range for puff pastries and croissants

In bakery and especially in puff pastries, butter can be considered as a central ingredient. Thanks to decades of experience in the industry, we know that many parameters are key for croissants or laminated dough manufacturers: layering capacity, flavours enhancement, browning control, and shelf life extension, among others. For these requirements, LACTALIS Ingredients has developed its expertise to propose dairy solutions with functional properties, including:

Butter 82% to enhance mouthfeel while bringing buttery taste
Butter 82 VN texturised butter or high melting point concentrated butter for layering quality optimisation
Lactose, sweet whey powder and whey permeate as browning agents
WPC35 or WPC80 to preserve a homogeneous and aerated dough
Skimmed milk powder
Buttermilk to give a soft texture and extend shelf life