Vinamilk ties knot with three European partners

Dairy giant Vinamilk yesterday signed agreements for nutritional research and application with three European firms in Zurich, Switzerland.

The three, DSM and Lonza of Switzerland and Chr. Hansen of Denmark, specialise in research, development and application of micro-nutrition and bio-science.

Vinamilk has been working with them for liquid milk, spoon yoghurt products, and, especially, its Dielac baby formula.

The company said official signing would take the co-operation a step further, especially in key areas like exchanging market information, new products research and development, clinical evaluation of product efficiency and support in development of lab for food safety control. They also planned to work together in training.

In 2009, Vinamilk and the Viet Nam National Institute of Nutrition did a study on the nutritional situation of Vietnamese children in different age groups focusing on nutritional features, daily rations, and the deficiency of micro-nutrition.

Armed with this knowledge, Vinamilk has since strategically developed products appropriate for Vietnamese children’s needs and development.

“Our strategy for the next three years is to continuously enhance the research on the nutritional situation, especially of Vietnamese children,” Nguyen Quoc Khanh, Vinamilk’s director of research, development, and production, said at the signing ceremony.

“Moreover, our strategic co-operation with world- leading partners will significantly support us in applying the most advanced nutritional science.”

The 2009 study, done in 63 cities and provinces of more than 50,000 children aged between 2 and 5, found almost half of them were malnourished to different levels.

Vinamilk is set to introduce Dielac Pedia, a tailor-made food for inappetent kids, developed in co-operation with its partners.

It focuses on factors that cause the lack of appetite in kids, including a weak digestive system and absorption ability.

Lonza is a supplier to the pharmaceutical, healthcare and life-science industry. Chr. Hansen is a bioscience company that develops natural ingredient solutions for the food, nutritional, pharmaceutical and agricultural industries, while DSM is a health and nutritional-ingredient solutions provider. — VNS

Tags: Vinamilk