Nutritional composition for improving immune fitness
The present invention relates to a nutritional composition comprising non-denatured lactoferrin for use in preventing or treating allergy, allergic rhinitis, asthma, urticaria, atopic eczema, allergic conjunctivitis, atopic dermatitis or atopic diseases in an infant or a toddler.
1 . A method for reducing the risk of developing or treating an allergic response to an allergen originating from food in an infant or a toddler comprising administering to the infant or toddler a nutritional composition comprising 0.03-14 wt % non-denatured lactoferrin, calculated by weight of total protein within the nutritional composition, said nutritional composition being selected from infant formula, follow-on formula and growing-up milk,
wherein the infant or toddler is allergen sensitized and,
wherein the nutritional composition comprises 5-20 cal. % protein, 30-60 cal. % lipids, and 25-75 cal. % digestible carbohydrates; wherein the protein comprises the non-denatured lactoferrin.
2 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the nutritional composition contains 0.06-11 wt. % non-denatured lactoferrin, calculated by weight of total protein within the nutritional composition.
3 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein at least 70 wt. % of the total lactoferrin in the nutritional composition is non-denatured lactoferrin.
4 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the nutritional composition is a powder.
5 . The method according to claim 4 , wherein the powder is reconstituted with aqueous liquid to prepare a reconstituted liquid formula and wherein the reconstituted liquid formula is subsequently orally administered to the infant or the toddler.
6 . The method according to claim 5 , wherein the reconstituted liquid formula comprises 0.005 to 2 g/L of non-denatured lactoferrin.
7 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the non-denatured lactoferrin is isolated from milk of a non-human animal or produced by a genetically modified organism.
8 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the method is for reducing the risk of developing or treating an IgE-mediated allergy.
9 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the reducing the risk of developing or treating an allergic response to an allergen originating from feed-non-dairy food.
10 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the reducing the risk of developing or treating an allergic response is for an allergen selected from peanut, tree nut, shell fish, wheat, soy, egg, sesame, and mold.
11 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the nutritional composition is not fermented.
12 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the nutritional composition is prepared by a process comprising the steps of:
a) providing a mixture of protein, lipids and digestible carbohydrates;
b) heating said mixture to at least 72° C. to obtain a heated mixture;
c) spray drying said heated mixture to obtain a powdered composition; and
d) dry-blending non-denatured lactoferrin with the powdered composition to obtain the nutritional composition.
13 . The method according to claim 2 , wherein the nutritional composition contains 0.12-6 wt. % non-denatured lactoferrin, calculated by weight of total protein within the nutritional composition.
14 . The method according to claim 3 , wherein at least 90 wt. % of the total lactoferrin in the nutritional composition is non-denatured lactoferrin.
15 . The method according to claim 6 , wherein the reconstituted liquid formula comprises 0.02 to 0.8 g/L of non-denatured lactoferrin.
16 . The method according to claim 7 , wherein the non-denatured lactoferrin is non-denatured bovine, caprine or ovine lactoferrin.