SureStart™ MFGM Lipids

Brain development is often sited as one of the most important considerations of parents, and a top purchase driver of infant formula.

The Milk Fat Globule Membrane (MFGM), naturally present in milk, is clinically shown to support brain development and cognition in infants.

See more details See less details

Religious Status:

• Halal

Our Sustainability Story*:

• Made with NZMP Dairy
• Grass-Fed
• Cared for Cows

Enquire about this product

Disclaimer: While we try to represent product images accurately, the representation on your screen may be different to the actual product for various reasons.

This ingredient can be used in the following applications:

• Two different ingredients available to enable formulation flexibility.
• Suitable for maternal and paediatric applications for infants and young children.

The Milk Fat Globule Membrane

Milk from mammals contains droplets of fat. The outer layer of these droplets is called the milk fat globule membrane (MFGM).

MFGM contains bioactive components such as complex milk lipids and MFGM proteins. The MFGM is an enriched source of phospholipids and gangliosides that may play an important role in brain development and cognition.

The MFGM proteins make up about 1% of the total protein in milk and have bioactive properties that may support immune function and digestive health. The profile of the most abundant MFGM proteins is similar in human milk and SureStart^TM MFGM Lipid 100 (Ma et al 2019).

MFGM and cognition

Breast milk is a rich source of bioactive lipids, including minor lipids present in the MFGM. The latter are more abundant in breast milk than in standard infant formula. The profile of phospholipids and other complex lipids such as gangliosides is similar in human milk, cow's milk and the brain.

There is increasing evidence that MFGM complex lipids may play important roles in brain development, and therefore using dairy MFGM ingredients in infant formula to more closely match the composition of human mil presents an important opportunity in infant formula innovation.

Clinical studies on MFGM Lipids

A number of studies have shown the potential benefits of MFGM containing ingredients for infant cognitive development.

• In a pilot study in Indonesia (Gurnida et al. 2012), healthy term infants fed a ganglioside-enriched infant formula from < 2 months to 6 months of age had higher hand-eye coordination, performance and general IQ scores (measured with the Griffith Scale) at 6 months of age than infants fed a standard infant formula.
• In a small study in Japan (Tanaka et al. 2013), very low birth weight preterms who received a formula enriched in milk sphingomyelin in addition to breast milk had higher developmental scores at 6, 12 and 18 months of age than infants who received a formula enriched with egg sphingomyelin.

• In a study in Sweden, healthy term infants who received an MFGM-enriched infant formula from < 2 months to 6 months of age had a higher cognitive score (measured with the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, 3rd edition) at 12 months of age than infants fed a standard infant formula, but was not different to breastfed infants.
• In a study in China (Xia et al.), healthy term infants who received an MFGM-rich formula from < 14 days to 12 months of age had higher general adaptive score (measured with Bayley-III) at 12 months of age compared with infants who received a non-supplemented formula.

Formulation Development

Breast milk is the gold standard for infant nutrition. It is widely recognized that the composition and structure of the fat in human milk and infant formula differ.

Infant formulae have been traditionally formulated with vegetable oils to match the fatty acid profile of breast milk, resulting in lower levels of MFGM components. Advances in dairy processing have made possible the MFGM enrichment of dairy streams, which has given manufacturers the ability to match the human milk fat globule composition, but also structure, in infant formulae.