This new easy dissolve milk tabs have launched this month under the Aptamil brand in the UK in response to parents’ desire for greater convenience and ease when preparing formula milk feeds.
With one tab equal to one standard scoop of powdered formula, the tab format will be made available in packs of 24 sachets, with each sachet containing five tabs.
Danone expects the new format to help cut down on mess as well as offering easy and accurate measurement and leading to less wasted formula.
According to consumer research involving more than 1300 mums, ‘convenient for feeding-on-the-go’ was the second most important criteria mums cited for their purchasing choices. Close to a third of those surveyed (31%) also said they looked for ‘greater convenience when preparing a formula feed’ (1329 parents of 0-36-month-old infants using formula milk, UK, 2018).
Gustavo Hildenbrand, General Manager UK & Ireland, Danone Specialized Nutrition, said: “We hope bringing to market formula milk in a pre-measured tab format will offer added convenience and support for formula feeding parents – especially in the ‘new normal’, when parents are often stretched and trying to juggle balancing family and work-life from home.”
Danone is producing the new tab format at its formula milk production facility in Wexford, Ireland, through a manufacturing partnership with Japanese food manufacture, Meiji, which grant's Danone use of Meiji’s patented tab production technology.
Producing formula milks at Danone’s local facility reflects the company’s ‘One Planet. One Health’ frame of action.
Jean-Michel Lequin, Director of Danone’s Wexford, Ireland, explains: “By installing Meiji’s tab production technology at Danone’s formula milk facility here in Wexford, Ireland, Danone can source and produce formula milk in this new format locally for the UK market, and that helps reduce our carbon footprint.”
Shun Yoshioka, MD of Meiji Food Europe, added: “We’re very pleased to have reached this milestone in our collaboration with Danone. Through our manufacturing partnership with Danone, we’re introducing a convenient, innovative format in formula milks – based on Meiji’s tabletting know-how – for the first time in the UK & Europe.”
After launching in the UK, Danone plans to begin offering this new format in other countries in Europe in 2022.
