Making healthy food taste great is the aim behind a Fonterra research project exploring new ways of using dairy ingredients in food products.
Fonterra's research centre has won government funding of $6 million for the project.
Chief technology officer Jeremy Hill says it is about using natural ingredients from milk to replace or reduce some of the substances in food that enhance the flavour but are not so good for our health.
Fonterra is collaborating with Otago and Canterbury Universities and overseas researchers in that project.
At the same time, it will investigate how it can improve and simplify the manufacturing process for the numerous ingredients it makes for export, ranging from specialised milk powders to proteins.
Fonterra makes more than 1000 products.
Dr Hill says the project, which is also getting $4 million in government funding, builds on a multi-million-dollar investment that Fonterra has made in processing research.
