On 25 July, Vitafoods Insights will host a free-to-attend webinar on infant and children’s health, bringing together industry experts to shine a light on the most recent and relevant innovations in this space.

Attendees can expect high-level insights that will help them create effective formulations to meet the dietary requirements of infants and children through their products and optimise health.

The first speaker, Smriti Sharma, programme manager at market research consultancy Frost & Sullivan, will deliver a presentation on specialty ingredients in the infant nutrition space.

Sharma will focus on the B2B industry dynamics for key specialty ingredients such as human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), pre- and probiotics, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), and specialty fats, highlighting the research being done by ingredient manufacturers to offer novel ingredients that cater to changing industry requirements.

She will also identify some of the trends driving demand for the ingredients that can help product formulators closely mimic the complex nutritional composition of breast milk.

Dr Regina Karim, global senior manager science at global nutrition company H&H Group, will then explore the benefits of human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) for infant health and microbiome development, and its relevance in the context of new product development.

As the third largest solid component in breastmilk after lactose and fat, HMOs have a huge role to play in maintaining infant health. They act as a prebiotic found naturally in breastmilk and work by feeding only beneficial bacteria in the gut of infants and children and generating short-chain fatty acids which are very important for the microbiome.

A growing body of science is throwing weight behind the benefits of HMOs to infant health, highlighting their critical role in developing the neonatal immune system via an increased healthy microbial diversity; preventing pathogen attachment; and by modulating the immune cells.

In her presentation, Karim will examine how R&D innovations are allowing HMOs that are structurally identical to those found in breastmilk can now be created by manufacturers and added to infant formula and follow-on formula.

The webinar will end with a live discussion between the two speakers where they tackle the most important aspects of this category, from the drivers of market demand to the latest consumer trends, and the most ground-breaking ingredient innovations as well as an overview of important scientific developments.