Medical nutrition companies
Adding a format to an existing range, or taking a product from powder into a ready-to-consume pack.
Therapeutic application
Sarcopenia and age-related muscle loss
The commercial difficulty with sarcopenia is that the product has to carry a large protein dose in a small serve, for people who eat less. That combination sits almost exactly on the concentration where protein stops behaving under heat. The formulation problem and the manufacturing problem are the same problem.
The nutritional brief
What the condition demands
Sarcopenia is defined by strength first and mass second. The nutritional brief that follows from that is about protein dose, protein quality and total intake — not about a single active.
- More protein per day than the general adult figureThe general adult reference is 0.8 g per kg per day. Guidance for older adults sits at or above 1.0–1.2 g per kg per day in health, 1.2–1.5 in acute or chronic illness, and higher in severe illness or injury.
- A larger dose in a single sittingOlder adults respond to a larger per-meal dose than younger adults do. Practical guidance clusters around 25–30 g of protein per meal, with some work supporting more.
- Energy alongside the proteinGeriatric guidance puts total energy around 30 kcal per kg per day, adjusted individually. Protein without energy is used as fuel rather than for repair.
- Protein quality, not just quantityDigestion rate and amino acid profile both matter. This is where the choice between whey, casein and plant proteins stops being a cost decision.
- Vitamin D where there is a deficitDaily supplementation in the 800–1000 IU range reduced falls in a large network meta-analysis — in deficient populations, on daily rather than intermittent dosing.
- A small serve, because appetite is smallAll of the above has to fit into a volume someone will actually finish. Density is the constraint that makes this category hard to manufacture.
What we develop
Formats we build for this need
Each one is developed as its own product with its own specification — formulation, process and the analysis that proves the finished pack meets the profile it declares.
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High-Protein Oral Nutritional Supplements
Ready-to-drink supplements carrying a full protein dose in a serve someone will finish.
Develop an ONS -
Spoonable High-Protein Formats
Puddings, creams and spoonables for people who manage a spoon better than a glass.
Develop a spoonable -
Protein-Fortified Meals
Everyday meals carrying a raised protein density, for people who will not drink a supplement.
Develop a fortified meal -
Plant-Protein and Blended Formats
Blended plant systems built to close the amino acid gap rather than ignore it.
Develop a plant format -
Protein with Vitamin D and Micronutrients
Combination formats where the micronutrient profile is declared and validated post-process.
Develop a combination product -
Clinical and Institutional Formats
Portion-standardised products for care homes, hospitals and institutional supply.
Develop a clinical format
What we change
The levers we pull
Formulating for this category is about choosing a system that arrives at the specification after processing and storage, rather than one that meets it in the kitchen.
- Casein-to-whey ratioCaseins cap whey aggregate growth. Shifting the ratio is the single biggest lever on whether a high-protein product survives the process intact.
- Controlled pre-denaturationDenature the whey deliberately under controlled heat and shear before the retort, so it cannot denature on its own terms inside the cycle.
- Protein quality and blendingAmino acid profile and digestion rate are formulated rather than inherited, which matters most when a plant system is replacing dairy.
- Energy densityCalories come mostly from fat, so the emulsion becomes the limiting factor as density rises.
- Micronutrient overageVitamin levels are set from measured retention on the actual cycle and pack, then confirmed by stability study.
- Mouthfeel at high proteinHigh-protein products go chalky, astringent and thick. Making the serve finishable is development work, not flavouring.
Straight answers
What the evidence supports, and what it does not
We would rather you launched a product that holds up under scrutiny than one carrying a claim that does not. These are the places where the evidence is weaker than the category implies.
- Protein supplementation does not help people who already eat enough
- A meta-analysis in non-frail community-dwelling older adults found no significant effect of protein supplementation on lean mass, muscle strength or physical performance, and no added benefit over resistance training alone. Habitual intake in those cohorts was already adequate. The defensible position is repletion of a real deficit, not supplementation of the replete.
- The leucine trigger hypothesis is narrower than the marketing
- A systematic review of 29 studies found only 16 supported it. It applies best in older adults, at sub-maximal doses, with isolated protein sources — not as a general rule and not with whole foods.
- More vitamin D is not better
- In the same network meta-analysis that found a benefit at 800–1000 IU daily, higher doses increased falls, and intermittent dosing showed no preventive effect. The benefit appeared in deficient populations.
- Omega-3 and HMB are weak ground
- An overview of 33 systematic reviews found limited evidence for omega-3 on lean mass or strength. HMB meta-analysis showed an effect on gait speed but not on muscle index, grip strength or body composition. Neither is a foundation for a claim.
- Nutrition is one half of the answer
- Anabolic resistance is substantially a disuse phenomenon. Resistance exercise is the other half, and a product that implies otherwise is overselling.
Who we develop for
Manufacturers, institutions and programme buyers
Products in this category are developed here for the organisations that have to put them in front of a clinician, a procurement team or a regulator.
Nutraceutical and functional food brands
Moving from general wellness into a defined clinical need, where the profile becomes the specification.
Hospitals, care homes and caterers
Producing to a standardised portion and profile, centrally, and shipping ambient.
Public health and institutional programmes
Supplementary and therapeutic feeding where composition, shelf life and cost per serve are fixed by tender.
Private label and OEM buyers
Sourcing under your own brand, needing the formulation and process proven before a co-packer is committed.
NPD, R&D and regulatory teams
Inside an established manufacturer, needing formulation, process and regulatory work in one place.
The technical side
The terms your file will use
If you are briefing an R&D, regulatory or quality team, or answering a tender or an importer’s questionnaire, these are the concepts the work is built on.
Terms in this category
- Sarcopenia
- A progressive skeletal muscle disorder. Current European consensus makes low muscle strength the entry criterion and low muscle mass the confirmatory one.
- Anabolic resistance
- A blunted muscle protein synthesis response to food in older adults — partly age, substantially disuse.
- Muscle protein synthesis
- The process a protein dose is intended to stimulate, and the endpoint most of the underlying trials measure.
- Per-meal protein dose
- The amount in a single sitting, which matters more in older adults than the daily total alone.
- DIAAS and PDCAAS
- Protein quality scores, used to compare an amino acid profile and its digestibility across sources.
- Fast and slow protein
- Whey digests quickly and raises plasma amino acids sharply; casein digests slowly. The choice changes the post-prandial response.
- Age gelation
- Non-enzymatic gelling appearing weeks after a heat-treated high-protein liquid is produced — a shelf-life failure only a stability programme finds.
- Sedimentation
- Aggregated protein settling out during storage, which reads as a defect even when the product is safe and on specification.
Where this sits in what we do
- Formulation and developmentConcept, formulation design and lab-scale trials against your target profile
- Pilot manufacturingTrial batches in the pack the product will ship in, including our pilot retort for shelf-stable formats
- Process validationThermal process validation and the scheduled process that a manufacturer runs from
- Stability and shelf lifeAccelerated and real-time studies establishing what the declared life actually is
- Clinical validationTrial design and management where an intended use or a claim has to be substantiated
- Regulatory and commercialisationClassification, labelling and the documentation each destination market asks for
Related work: clinical nutrition, therapeutic nutrition, retort clinical and medical nutrition and clinical trial management.
Questions
Sarcopenia, specifically
How much protein can you actually get through a retort?
It depends on how the protein system is built rather than on the number alone. Above roughly eight to ten per cent total protein you are in the band where uncontrolled whey aggregation causes thickening, sedimentation and later gelation. Raising the casein fraction and pre-denaturing the whey under controlled conditions both move that limit. A pilot establishes where your specific system sits.
Should we use whey, casein or plant protein?
For processing stability, a higher casein fraction is the friendlier system. For post-prandial response, whey digests faster. For cost, market and dietary positioning, plant systems may win, but they need blending to close the amino acid profile. We would rather work backwards from your market and your process than recommend one in the abstract.
Can we claim our product builds muscle?
Be careful. In people already eating enough protein, supplementation has not shown significant effects on lean mass, strength or performance, and it added nothing over resistance training alone. Where intake is genuinely low, repletion is a defensible position. What the label may say then depends on the market and the product's classification.
Is leucine worth fortifying with?
Sometimes, and more narrowly than the category suggests. Adding free leucine to a slow protein does augment the acute response, and practical guidance pairs a 25–30 g protein meal with a leucine content in that region. But the trigger hypothesis held in only 16 of 29 studies reviewed, and mostly with isolated protein sources at sub-maximal doses.
What vitamin D level should we add?
If you are adding it for falls, the evidence sits at 800–1000 IU daily, in populations that are deficient, on daily rather than intermittent dosing. Higher doses increased falls in the same analysis. That is an unusual dose-response and it should shape the format, not just the number.
Why does our high-protein drink thicken on the shelf?
Age gelation. Heat-treated high-protein liquids can gel weeks or months after production, and no release test catches it because it has not happened yet. Only a real-time stability programme finds it, which is why we run one before a launch rather than after.
See the wider applications index
Next step
Tell us what the product has to do
Send the target profile, the format you have in mind and the market you are selling into. We will tell you what is achievable, what the evidence will and will not support on the label, and what the development work would need to cover.
- 1Send the briefA target profile and a format is enough to start.
- 2We come back within two working daysWith what is achievable and where the risk sits.
- 3You get a scoped quotePriced on the work the product actually needs.
