All around the world, more and more people want and need the kind of natural nourishment that sustainable dairy nutrition from Aotearoa New Zealand provides.
Because milk is a superfood from nature and an important part of a balanced diet, it provides a unique bundle of essential nutrients that are hard to replicate.
It plays a vital role in helping to meet the world’s nutritional needs now and into the future.
Right now, we share trusted, sustainable dairy nutrition of New Zealand with customers and consumers through our world-leading core dairy products and advanced nutrition ingredients.
But we’re also looking to the future, bringing together nature and science to unlock more of that potential. Meeting changing consumer needs and lifestyles with new experiences, flavours and formats.
Follow the milk drop
Explore our immersive journey and discover that there is more to milk than meets the eye.
Our Nutrition Mission
At Fonterra we believe that our sustainable dairy goodness from New Zealand provides vital nutrition that will help people lead better lives.
Together with our nutrition policies, standards and guidelines we have a framework in place, called our nutrition identity, that ensures the continuous improvement, reporting and the governance of nutrition right across our Co-operative.
Our Performance
Percentage of consumer products that meet endorsed nutrition guidelines
Did you know?
Mythbusting
There have been many questions, myths and misconceptions about milk and dairy products over the years. Ever wondered what to believe? We’ve got the science and the facts right here.
Plant-based beverages have the same amount of protein as milk.
Fact
Plant-based beverages are not nutritionally equivalent to cow’s milk. For example, cow's milk packs 4x the protein of an oat beverage.¹
If you’re lactose intolerant you should skip milk and dairy products completely.
Fact
People with lactose intolerance do not need to avoid dairy products altogether. In fact, reducing your lactose intake, rather than avoiding it completely, is recommended, with cheese containing very low levels of lactose and well tolerated.²
Humans are not designed to drink cow’s milk.
Fact
The human body has evolved genetically over thousands of years to produce lactase, the enzyme that helps us digest and tolerate lactose, which is the sugar found in milk.³
Processing significantly impacts milk’s nutritional value.
Fact
Processing doesn’t make any significant changes to the unique nutritional goodness that milk provides. You can be sure you’re still getting an important source of high-quality nutrition and making a meaningful contribution to your daily nutrient requirements.⁴
Milk can be easily substituted in our global food system.
Fact
Research has found it would be a serious challenge to find a suitable replacement for milk. Milk is making a massive contribution to the supply of key nutrients – it's the greatest single contributing food source for calcium, vitamin B2, dietary fat and lysine availability.⁵
Getting calcium from a glass of milk is as easy as from other foods.
Fact
To get the same amount of calcium contained in one 250ml glass of full-fat milk you would have to eat either: 2.5 cups of boiled spinach or 6 cups of boiled broccoli or over half a cup of almonds.⁶
References
1. Scholz-Ahrens K E, Ahrens F, Barth C A (2020). Nutritional and health attributes of milk and milk imitations. European Journal of Nutrition, 59(1):19-34.
New Zealand Food Composition Database. 2022. The Concise New Zealand Food Composition Tables, 14th Edition 2021. The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited and Ministry of Health www.foodcomposition.co.nz/concise-tables/
2. Eating, Diet, & Nutrition for Lactose Intolerance - NIDDK (nih.gov)
3. https://www.fao.org/4/i3396e/i3396e.pdf
4. Macdonald, L. E., Brett, J., Kelton, D., Majowicz, S. E., Snedeker, K., & Sargeant, J. M. (2011). A systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of pasteurization on milk vitamins, and evidence for raw milk consumption and other health-related outcomes. Journal of food protection, 74(11), 1814–1832. https://doi.org/10.4315/0362-028X.JFP-10-269
Rolls, B. A., & Porter, J. W. G. (1973). Some effects of processing and storage on the nutritive value of milk and milk products. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 32(1), 9-15.
5. Smith, N. W., Fletcher, A. J., Hill, J. P., & McNabb, W. C. (2022). Modeling the Contribution of Milk to Global Nutrition. Frontiers in nutrition, 8, 716100. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2021.716100
6. New Zealand Food Composition Database. 2022. The Concise New Zealand Food Composition Tables, 14th Edition 2021. The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited and Ministry of Health www.foodcomposition.co.nz/concise-tables/
Learn and Discover
Explore a library of nutrition content that unpacks the truth about milk and dairy products.
Browse the latest content below.