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New milk powder product in production to 'leverage melatonin in its natural form'. But not available to New Zealand consumers

Rural News
New milk powder product in production to 'leverage melatonin in its natural form'. But not available to New Zealand consumers

Content supplied by Synlait Milk

Synlait Milk has commercialised a dairy-based milk powder ingredient that is clinically proven to enhance sleep.

Results from an independent clinical trial of iNdream3 have proved its efficacy as a sleep promoting ingredient.

iNdream3 is made from melatonin-rich milk collected in the hours of darkness, when cows naturally produce increased concentrations of melatonin in their milk.

“We’ve been developing this product for several years and this clinical trial is a major milestone in proving the ability of iNdream3 to improve sleep,” said Dr Simon Causer, Synlait’s Research and Development Manager.

“iNdream3 leverages melatonin in its natural form. Melatonin in almost all other products are synthetically produced or extracted from source materials with lower levels of melatonin.”

Melatonin is a sleep-promoting hormone that plays a key role in helping humans to regulate their day/night cycle.

iNdream3 has initially been sold in Korea by a Synlait customer since January 2015. Their product, Sleepiz, is sold as a powder in a sachet that consumers reconstitute as a drink.

The clinical trial, conducted by Otago University’s WellSleep Centre, found that iNdream3 reduces the time to onset of sleep, increases stage N3 sleep time (the deepest phase of sleep) and reduces daytime dysfunction. Daytime dysfunctions include sleepiness, fatigue, impaired memory and poor concentration.

“iNdream3 is an exciting opportunity. It demonstrates our capability as a nutritional business to create and add value for the long term,” said Dr John Penno, Synlait’s Managing Director.

“This is a high value product. Both Synlait and our milk suppliers who provide night milk will benefit, with suppliers receiving a payment above the market milk price," said Dr Penno.

“We are looking forward to continuing to develop opportunities with our business to business (B2B) customers for the use of iNdream3 as an ingredient in their products.”

Development of this product was funded by Synlait with additional support from DairyNZ through the Transforming the Dairy Value Chain Primary Growth Partnership programme.

The clinical trial was conducted by Otago University and jointly funded by Synlait, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) and Ingredia SA.

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