China is the largest market for baby food with 50% of the world market volume. The German Jennewein Biotechnologie GmbH now wants to develop this market for its human milk oligosaccharides and has signed a cooperation agreement with the Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group. Together with the Chinese market leader in dairy products, Jennewein intends to develop an infant formula and other dairy products specifically tailored to the Chinese market. In addition, the cooperation will further research the microbiome of newborns.

Special sugars for healthy infant development

Human milk oligosaccharides are components of breast milk that cannot yet be produced chemically due to their complexity. This is why most baby substitutes available today do not contain any of these special milk sugars. However, a few years ago Jennewein Biotechnologie developed a biotechnological process for their production and thus achieved world market leadership in human milk oligosaccharides. The special sugars protect against pathogens such as the norovirus and, due to their prebiotic properties, influence the child's microbiome, which is of great importance for healthy development.

Already active in Europe and the USA

"We are committed to ensuring that Chinese parents and their children can also benefit from the advantages of human milk oligosaccharides for the development of a healthy microbiome in newborns," said Stefan Jennewein, Managing Director and co-founder of Jennewein Biotechnologie, at the conclusion of the cooperation agreement. Jennewein has already introduced human milk oligosaccharides in selected European countries and the USA and is now looking forward to working with Yili.

Many years of research into breast milk

Gerrit Smit, Managing Director of the Yili Innovation Center Europe, explained: "The Yili Group has been committed to researching the composition of Chinese breast milk for many years and has initiated, among other things, the establishment of a Chinese breast milk database for this purpose". They are therefore very much looking forward to working with Jennewein in the future. Just recently, Jennewein acquired a new plant to expand the production of human lactose.

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