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Fonterra has developed a way to make colostrum health drinks by using pressure equal to five times that generated by the deepest oceans to preserve the beverages.
Colostrum is the fluid produced by mammals immediately after giving birth which provides a heavy dose of active antibodies to build up the immune system of the offspring.
Asian market consumers in particular associate colostrum with good health and better immunity.
It had not been possible to make a ready to drink beverage with a reasonable shelf life by using traditional methods such as heat as it destroyed the bioactive components and the possible health benefits of colostrum.
But extreme pressure has been used in the food industry to kill pathogens and organisms that cause spoilage.
After six years of research Fonterra has refined the technology and patented a process for making a ready to drink colostrum beverage with a shelf life of up to six months.
The dairy company used a machine to apply up to 5000 bar of pressure - nearly five times the just more than 1000 bar of pressure found at the deepest part of the Pacific Ocean in the Marianas Trench.
Fonterra manager of new options, Nigel Little, said the company was marketing the technology worldwide to food and beverage manufacturers and had signed its first license.
