Arla Foods Ingredients will present three new personalised clear shake solutions at SupplySide Global, held October 28–30 in Las Vegas, as the functional beverage ingredients market continues to attract significant formulation investment.
The Danish dairy ingredients specialist — a unit of the farmer-owned Arla Foods cooperative — is positioning the trio of concepts around the intersection of transparency, personalisation, and multi-functional benefit stacking, three trends that have reshaped sports nutrition and general wellness formats over the past two years. Clear protein shakes, which use acid-stable whey protein isolates or similar derivatives to deliver a juice-like rather than milky texture, have expanded rapidly from a niche sports product into mainstream functional beverage territory.
Why Clear Protein Is Growing
The shift toward clear shake formats reflects a broader consumer preference for lighter, fruit-forward beverages that still deliver a meaningful protein payload — typically 20 grams or more per serve. For ingredient suppliers, the format requires specific processing and heat-stability characteristics that standard whey concentrates cannot reliably achieve, creating a technical differentiation opportunity for specialist producers. Arla Foods Ingredients has previously commercialised its Lacprodan range of acid-stable whey protein isolates specifically for this application tier.
Personalisation is the second pillar of the showcase. Formulators and brand owners attending SupplySide Global are under increasing pressure from retail buyers to demonstrate that their products address individual consumer needs — whether by life stage, activity level, or health goal — rather than serving a single mass market. The three concepts Arla Foods Ingredients will display are designed to illustrate how a clear shake base can be adapted across distinct benefit platforms without sacrificing sensory quality.
Trade Show as Sales Pipeline
SupplySide Global, formerly known as SupplySide West, is one of the largest ingredient and formulation trade events in North America, drawing buyers from the sports nutrition, functional food, and foodservice supplement channels. For ingredient suppliers, booth demonstrations of finished-format concepts — rather than raw ingredient samples — have become a standard tactic to shorten the sales cycle with brand partners who need consumer-ready proof points before committing to development budgets.
Arla Foods Ingredients' presence reinforces a pattern visible across the dairy ingredient sector, where suppliers are investing in application development capabilities alongside production capacity. As covered in related F&B Industry News reporting on functional beverage ingredient trends and sports nutrition supply chain dynamics, the competitive pressure on ingredient companies to show up at trade events with finished concept work — not just technical data sheets — has intensified markedly since 2023.
No pricing, customer names, or volume commitments were disclosed in connection with the SupplySide Global showcase.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
