Will China’s transition to a two-child policy usher in a new baby boom? Time will tell, but in the meantime China’s southern neighbor, Vietnam, is ripe with opportunity boasting a population of 13 million children, aged 8 years and younger.

These bright growth prospects in Vietnam were reaffirmed by six key decision makers of leading Vietnamese food and beverage manufacturers, who participated in a technical training mission to the United States, November 14-20. The mission participants came to the United States eager to learn about the U.S. dairy industry’s evolving product portfolio scope, the health and nutritional benefits of dairy in child nutrition, new product trends with U.S. dairy ingredients and to meet with U.S. suppliers.

Notably, sales of milk formula for infants and toddlers grew at an 11.4% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in Vietnam from 2009-2014, and is projected to continue growing at 8.5% CAGR from 2014-2019 (Source: Euromonitor, volume basis). While human breast milk is widely considered to be the ideal food for newborn infants, cow's milk protein-based infant formulas are relied upon to provide optimal nutritional support for infants that, for a variety of reasons, cannot be, or are not, breastfed.

U.S. whey proteins are widely used by global infant formula manufacturers to adjust the protein composition of cow's milk-based infant formulas to mimic many of the characteristics of human milk. The addition of whey protein in cow's milk-based formula recipes is necessary to adjust the whey:casein ratio from approximately 20:80 of cow's milk to 60:40 ratio of human breast milk. Supplemental whey protein is also used in formulas for older infants and young children, and hydrolyzed proteins are used in products for infants with cow's milk protein allergy.

For more information on utilizing U.S. dairy ingredients in child nutrition applications, please visit the child nutrition section on USDEC as well as the product pages for milk powder, whey ingredients and lactose.