…Launches Arla Foods Global Innovation Centre
Lagos, Nigeria; June 12, 2017: Leading global dairy company,
Arla Foods has restated its commitment to addressing the growing need of people
around the world, including Nigerians, for nutritious, tasty, safe and
affordable food products. The company also pledged to continuously participate
in finding solutions for the global challenges related to obesity,
under-nutrition, environment and climate.
The company made the pledge during a recent visit by the
Nigerian Minister of State for Agriculture, Hon. Heineken Lokpobiri and other
officials of the ministry to its headquarters in Denmark for the official
opening of the Arla Foods Global Innovation Centre.
The centre is located in Skejby, the heart of the Danish
food cluster and the cluster of innovation excellence across Denmark. It was
created and designed to facilitate cutting-edge innovation in food processing
by bringing all the key players into play: consumers, customers, small and
medium-sized enterprises, universities and their students, suppliers, technical
institutions, professional associations, among others.
Giving reasons for the setting up of the centre, the Chief
Executive Officer, Arla Foods, Peder Tuborgh said the centre was conceived as
part of the company’s vision to create the future of dairy to bring health and
inspiration to the world, naturally.
“To be at the very forefront of the industry, it will
require investments in research and innovation and our new Arla Foods Global
Innovation Centre aims to bring not only innovation in Arla, but to bring the
global dairy industry into a new era,” he said.
He pointed out that with the population estimated to hit the
nine billion mark in 2050, there should be concerns over food security. “When
you think about the growing world population, you can either worry about it –
or you can start acting to respond to the expected increase, and that is what
we are doing at Arla Foods with our new Global Innovation Centre,” he
added.
The centre is expected to function through proactive
partnerships with universities, private partners and research institutions and
supported by public funding, with its research supporting the development of
healthy, tasty, and safe dairy products.
Such research, the company said, will in the long term focus
on major scientific and technical challenges faced by the dairy industry like health
and nutrition, improving the nutritional profile of dairy products, increasing
the shelf life of products to enable them to travel across geographies,
securing the food safety to ensure top quality products despite long distances,
high temperatures and various types of transportation.
The centre will be a major contributor to making advancement
in science and technology around health and nutrition of dairy products, and
will also ensure the short term application and technology transfer of knowledge
to enable new products to be introduced in markets and resolving problems in
its manufacturing sites.
The Arla Foods Global Innovation Centre, Tuborgh disclosed,
will be open to the public and will enable new ways of cooperating and bringing
expertise together for win-win partnerships. Students will be trained to use
first-rate equipment and facilities to develop and grow their skills and
expertise before entering the job market. Arla staff will also benefit from
continuous training programmes provided through collaboration with the best
researchers and professors in the country.
“There is still a lot more to understand about milk’s role
in fighting global challenges such as lifestyle diseases and under-nourishment
– and we aim to gain and promote this knowledge. Also there is still more to
learn about sustainable production and packaging of dairy. Despite an increased
production, we have been able to continuously reduce our impact on climate.
Arla’s dairy products can therefore form an important part of a sustainable
diet, as defined by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United
Nations (FAO),” he said.
The Nigerian delegation included the Director, Animal
Husbandry, Mr John Taiwo; Deputy Director, Animal Husbandry, Mrs Winnie
Lai-Solarin and the Technical Assistant on Quality Control &
Standardization to the Minister, Mrs. Heather R. Akanni.
By Celestine Achi
