Nutrition: ENEA and Gruppo Granarolo launched a milk suitable for everyone

From a collaboration between ENEA and Gruppo Granarolo, one of the leading dairy brand in Italy, comes G+milk, easily digestible, lactose free  and with 30% less sugar than whole milk. This innovative product, just arrived on supermarkets shelves, was created thanks to a production process patented by ENEA and Granarolo, based on a filtration process breaking down lactose into glucose and galactose and separating  the different components in order to obtain  a low-sugar milk.

“In order to provide milk with high digestibility and low sugar content, we employed membrane filtration technologies, innovative mechanical processes without the need for solvents or reagents, which allow to preserve the active substances of milk” Roberto Balducchi, Head of the ENEA Bioproducts and Bioprocesses Laboratory, explained.

“These technologies are in fact also called ‘mild tecnologies’ – Balducchi went on – because, when used for food preservation and transformation, they don’t affect their nutritional value”.

“The collaboration with Granarolo group is part of the research and development activities we’ve have conducted for many years in the agroindustry sector at the national level.  Our technological halls enable us to study, develop and test high-tech solutions to transfer to companies for the innovation of processes and products”, Massimo Iannetta, Head of the ENEA Biotechnologies and Agroindustry Division, pointed out.

The innovative technological process patented by ENEA and Granarolo Group has allowed the creation of a major production line at the Gioia del Colle facility in the Bari province, following an investment of over 5 million euro; a result which represents a technology transfer best practice in support of innovation and competitiveness of the agrifood sector in Italy from public research.

“Granarolo G+ is an actual revolution in the milk industry - Angelo Vittorio Zambrini, Gruppo Granarolo, Head of  Qality, Innovation, Safety, Environment, said – a unique innovation capable of creating a new product category  in response to growing consumers’ needs and changing food trends”.

Technological Hall CR Casaccia agro-industrial processes

For more information please contact:

Claudio Russo, ENEA -Bioproducts and Bioprocesses laboratory, claudio.russo@enea.it

Daniele Pizzichini, ENEA - Bioproducts and Bioprocesses Laboratory daniele.pizzichini@enea.it