From ‘fibremaxxing’ to personalised nutrition, health and wellbeing is one of the most influential ‘megatrends’ shaping today’s food and beverage innovation. For the dairy industry, Valio’s VP of innovation, Kevin Deegan, believes this opens up a wealth of opportunities to create value, drawing from the industry’s longstanding expertise in functionality and sensory appeal. In this exclusive interview, he tells us more about what’s set to define the next era of functional dairy innovation.
How do you see health and wellness trends translating into concrete dairy product innovation over the next three years?
Health and wellness needs to be treated holistically: not only physical health, but also mental wellbeing, energy, sleep and the everyday desire for balance. When we look at how consumers use food to manage wellbeing, the innovation opportunities become clearer, especially solutions that feel simple, credible and enjoyable.
One of the most tangible shifts over the next three years will be the knock-on effects of wider adoption of GLP-1 and other weight management medicines. If usage grows as predicted, we should expect changes in appetite, portion size and potentially even sensory preferences. This will create demand for foods that are nutrient-dense in smaller servings: high-quality protein, key micronutrients and satiety-supporting formulations.
It also challenges us to rethink sweetness and flavour intensity, as reduced appetite or desire for sweetness has been reported by some users of such medicines. In practice, this may mean that dairy innovation will move toward smaller, more nutrient-packed formats, optimised for tolerance, palatability and consistent everyday use.
The second clear area is the continued strength of protein-driven dairy, especially protein-rich snacks, drinks and desserts that consumers perceive as both healthy and satisfying. Protein demand shows no sign of slowing; if anything, it has broadened beyond sports nutrition into mainstream choices.
A key driver in the current growth in protein is that it gives permission to enjoy indulgent formats such as desserts, puddings and mousse-style snacks without the feeling of compromising on health. The winners will be products that deliver high protein, great taste and excellent texture, with clean communication around benefits and everyday relevance.
There is a huge shift towards nutrient density, highlighted in trends such as ‘fibremaxxing’ and the protein boom. How can dairy companies lead in this space?
We’ve been waiting for fibre to have its breakthrough moment. Most consumers understand it is ‘good for you,’ but historically it has been harder to make exciting, particularly for younger consumers. What’s changing now is the broader push for nutrient density and digestive wellbeing, which is making fibre more relevant, more discussed and easier to justify in everyday choices.
From a dairy perspective, the opportunity is real, but execution matters. Fibre integration can impact viscosity, sweetness perception and mouthfeel, so success depends on choosing the right fibre types and designing the full sensory profile around them. The good news is that dairy systems are extremely versatile: we can work with formulation, fermentation, processing and flavour architecture to deliver fibre without a ‘health compromise’ experience.
As an industry, we’ve repeatedly adapted to changing expectations; taste, tolerance, convenience, health claims – and we’re well placed to do it again. The most successful fibre-forward dairy will be the products where fibre feels like a natural upgrade to something consumers already love, not an obvious functional add-on.
One of the hottest talking points in the health and wellbeing space is personalised nutrition. With unprecedented access to consumer data and advanced analytics, how realistic is hyper-personalisation – and what role could dairy play in shaping that future?
Personalisation is already here. Most people carry at least one device that tracks aspects of daily physiology, such as sleep, activity, stress proxies and heart rate variability, and some consumers actively combine these data with diet tracking. As wearables and diagnostics advance, it’s realistic that consumers will increasingly receive dynamic guidance on nutrition needs and behavioural goals. That is what hyper-personalisation will look like: practical, data-enabled recommendations that evolve with your body and lifestyle.
Dairy has a strong role to play because it is inherently versatile. A single raw material, milk, can be transformed into a wide range of products with different nutritional profiles, textures and usage occasions. Companies such as Valio, with deep dairy science capabilities, have a proven ability to turn emerging needs into scalable consumer solutions.
I see hyper-personalisation as more opportunity than threat. It will reward categories that can deliver credible nutrition, high sensory satisfaction and many format options. We have seen that dairy can do all three.
Valio has more than a century of experience in dairy innovation. Over time, what major shifts in consumer trends has the company observed within the dairy sector?
Innovation has been the engine of Valio’s growth for over 120 years. Our science-based tradition was shaped by Nobel laureate AI Virtanen, who believed research and innovation could give a small country, such as Finland, global impact. That principle has remained central to how we develop solutions.
One of the most important shifts we’ve seen is how consumer needs become trends only once enabling technology catches up. Lactose intolerance isn’t a trend in the strict sense, the need has always existed, but innovation turned it into a mainstream category. In 2001, Valio was the first in the world to develop and launch totally lactose-free milk that still tastes like regular milk and that capability has shaped global lactose-free development since.
When we talk about trends more broadly, they often come from two sources:
Science-led opportunities: Advances in nutrition, physiology and microbiome understanding (for example, gut health and specific nutrient needs)
Perception-led waves: Shifting beliefs and fashion cycles (such as decades of changing attitudes to fat, sugar and dieting frameworks)
We’ve lived through both. Perhaps the most consistent long-running demand signal has been protein, evolving from sports nutrition into a mainstream wellness and snacking driver.
What’s been most impressive, both at Valio and in the dairy sector overall, is the continuous willingness to improve: becoming more efficient, raising quality and creating more value from every drop of an exceptional raw material.
From your persepctive, what weak signals are likely to define the sector moving forward?
I’ll mention two ‘weak signals’ that are likely to become defining forces.
First, protein is no longer a passing wave, it has become a structural consumer expectation. Protein has expanded from fitness into everyday health, weight management, satiety and snack replacement. For that reason, I don’t consider ‘what comes after protein’ as the right question anymore. The real question is how we keep protein propositions relevant through superior taste, texture, portion design and nutrient density.
Second, digestive health and the gut–brain axis is still under-realised versus its long-term potential. We already see growing interest in fermented dairy formats such as kefir, but we are still very early in translating the complexity of the microbiome into consumer-relevant and evidence-led solutions. As understanding improves and as consumers connect digestion with broader wellbeing, dairy will benefit due to fermentation heritage, culture know-how and format versatility.
Third, a quieter but highly consequential signal is the shift toward life-stage and needs-based formulation. We already see this strongly in early-life nutrition (maternal, infant, toddler, and young child), where innovation is moving from basic fortification to more sophisticated approaches that target nutrient structure, digestibility and functional outcomes. This ‘tailored nutrition’ logic will extend across the lifespan: products designed for pregnancy and postpartum, childhood development, active adults, and healthy ageing, alongside options for specific needs such as lactose intolerance, digestive comfort, allergy-prone consumers or reflux and sensitivity.
The companies that win will be those that can combine credible science, excellent sensory delivery and clear need-state communication, turning specialised solutions into everyday routines.
How important is scientific innovation and clinical validation in dairy, and how do you balance this with the need to keep pace with new product launches?
With the massive volume of information now available, added to the fact that consumers are exposed to contradictory claims and even inconsistent dietary guidance, making decisions has not become easier. If anything, trust has become harder to earn. In that environment, scientific innovation and clinical validation are a defining competitive advantage for dairy, because they provide credible, evidence-based proof of function and benefit.
The balance comes from running innovation on two speeds: one stream focuses on the longer cycle, science-led platforms. This means clinically supported benefits, proprietary processes, cultures, enzymes and technologies that create real differentiation and can be leveraged across multiple products.
The second stream focuses on the faster cycle launches: consumer-led formats, flavours and occasions that keep the portfolio relevant and responsive.
We can think of these in terms of ‘push or pull’ innovation, based on where the need lies and how ideas are born and developed. When these are connected well, clinical validation accelerates innovation. You build a strong scientific ‘engine’ once, and then you can rapidly translate it into multiple compelling products with consistent messaging and higher consumer trust.
From climate pressures to metabolic health crises, what are the defining challenges today that require food and beverage manufacturers to step up, and how can dairy innovation contribute to solutions?
Two defining challenges stand out: planetary pressures and metabolic health. Food manufacturers are expected to contribute to both, by reducing environmental impact while also improving the nutritional quality of diets at scale.
For dairy, one of the most important areas where the sector must step up is the quality and credibility of the public conversation. Dairy’s role in healthy nutrition is often discussed in overly simplified terms, and that can drown out nuance and evidence. Companies like ours, a cooperative owned by thousands of Finnish dairy farmers, have both a responsibility and a mandate to lead a rational, fact-based discussion: what dairy contributes nutritionally, how it fits into balanced diets and how we continuously improve the footprint of production.
Innovation plays a practical role here. It can improve nutrient density per serving, support satiety and protein quality, enable lactose-free and digestion-friendly options and reduce food waste through better processing and utilisation of the whole milk stream. At the same time, innovation must focus on measurable sustainability improvements, because the only credible future for the category is one where nutrition and environmental progress move together.
Looking ahead, what do you think will define the next era of dairy innovation? How do you think manufacturers should be preparing to meet the next trend?
The next era of dairy innovation will be defined by three things: precision, proof and purpose.
First, precision: we will get better at designing products for specific occasions and needs like satiety, protein quality, digestive comfort and nutrient density, without compromising taste and enjoyment.
Second, proof: as consumers become more sceptical and more data-driven, the winners will be those who can substantiate benefits responsibly, with strong science behind claims.
Third, purpose: dairy’s future depends on continued progress in sustainability, transparency and value creation from the full raw material.
To prepare, manufacturers need to strengthen their ability to understand consumers at a deeper level, not only what people say they want, but the underlying jobs-to-be-done and tensions shaping everyday choices. If we interpret those needs well, dairy can usually provide a solution. Our history shows that when a real consumer need meets enabling technology, dairy innovation can move very fast and set the standard for the wider food industry.
