Infant nutrition and clinical nutrition: when ingredient quality becomes essential

In the ingredients industry, infant nutrition and clinical nutrition share a common denominator: vulnerable target consumers. Infant nutrition supports the earliest stages of life, from birth through the child’s third year. Clinical nutrition, or medical nutrition, is aimed at patients whose nutritional needs cannot be met through a normal diet. As a leading supplier of dairy ingredients created specifically for these exacting markets, Lactalis Ingredients is on the front line of these challenges. To understand how such major industrial and public health issues are addressed, we spoke with the Operational Quality Manager at Lactalis Ingredients.

Could you tell us about your role as Quality Manager and your responsibilities at Lactalis Ingredients?

My role as Operational Quality Manager is to ensure that our products are safe, compliant and meet our customers’ expectations, by designing and implementing essential requirements across our production facilities. The aim is to embed quality within a continuous improvement approach, making it a genuine part of our corporate culture and a driver of long-term performance.

What are the main challenges when producing ingredients intended for infant or clinical nutrition?

The first challenge is food safety. These products are intended for vulnerable populations, and every stage of the process, from receiving the milk through to packaging the powder, must be perfectly controlled. In particular, as some of our customers do not have additional control steps in place, such as final pasteurisation. This means that we must enforce a particularly high level of rigour.

The second challenge is consistency: ensuring a uniform level of quality while managing the complexity of recipes and flows is especially demanding, particularly given the diversity of the liquid dairy raw materials used.

What are the main standards and regulations these ingredients must comply with?

Our products are manufactured to meet high requirements, particularly for customers who themselves must comply with Regulation (EU) No 609/2013. Our operations are based on international frameworks and standards including HACCP, FSSC 22000 and the principles of the Codex Alimentarius. Lastly, our own standards are supplemented by customer specifications, including enhanced microbiological criteria and strict process validation protocols that go well beyond the regulatory framework.

What systems has Lactalis Ingredients put in place to meet these standards?

We have rolled out “Act For Quality”, the Group’s quality policy, a single, harmonised management framework built around four pillars: guaranteeing safety and compliance, developing the superiority of our products, improving industrial efficiency to deliver better quality, and reinforcing expertise while fostering a culture of quality. pillar is translated into concrete actions and projects to realize this ambition.

For example, we have defined the essential equipment required for each category of product manufactured (food, baby food, etc.), which is fundamental to ensuring food safety and product quality.

What quality controls are carried out, and at which stages of the production chain?

Controls begin as soon as the dairy raw materials are received, with systematic microbiological, physico-chemical and documentation checks. Throughout each processing phase – skimming, pasteurisation, concentration and drying- critical parameters are monitored using HACCP methodology, covering microbiological, physical, chemical, nutritional and allergen-related risks.

Regular samples are also taken from the production environment to prevent any risk of cross-contamination, which is particularly critical for powdered products. Beyond standard controls, we also deploy predictive analysis tools to detect weak signals at a very early stage. Lastly, ingredient release relies on systematic analyses of finished products, carried out before any batch is made available. Automatic samplers are used for these checks, ensuring representative sampling throughout production.

Do you hold certifications linked to your quality processes?

Our sites producing ingredients for infant and clinical nutrition are FSSC 22000-certified, ensuring food safety throughout the process. For pharmaceutical applications, our processes also meet EXCiPACT requirements, which are specific to pharmaceutical excipients.

What processes or technologies help preserve the nutritional quality of dairy ingredients? And how does Lactalis Ingredients approach continuous improvement?

Preserving nutritional quality relies on well-controlled processes tailored to the nature of each product. Wherever possible, we favour cold processes and gentle physical treatments to limit the denaturation of sensitive components. Membrane filtration is a good example: it makes it possible to separate and concentrate the fractions of interest while preserving their nutritional, functional and food-safety properties.

When it comes to continuous improvement, our approach draws on several complementary levers: regular investment in our sites, targeted on the basis of opportunities identified on the ground; FSSC 22000 certification, which prompts us to keep challenging our practices; inter-site exchanges between teams to harmonise and share best practices; and internal audits against evolving standards, which act as a genuine driver of progress.

Quality as a commitment, not a selling point

In markets where every ingredient directly impact the health of the most vulnerable- from birth through medical fragility – quality cannot be merely a marketing stance; it is a daily responsibility. By unifying the standards of infant and clinical nutrition, Lactalis Ingredients elevates food safety into a lever for excellence, giving formulators high-purity solutions with which to build the health of tomorrow.

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Sources:

[1] Parlement européen et Conseil de l’Union européenne, Règlement (UE) n° 609/2013 relatif aux denrées alimentaires destinées aux nourrissons et aux enfants en bas âge, aux denrées alimentaires destinées à des fins médicales spéciales et aux substituts de la ration journalière totale pour contrôle du poids (Règlement DADF), Juin 2013 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/FR/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32013R0609