Clear protein drinks: Overview
- Clear protein enables high-protein drinks with lighter, refreshing textures
- Highly filtered whey protein improves clarity, flavour and stability
- Manufacturers can develop waters, RTDs and multifunctional protein beverages
- Clear protein supports low-calorie positioning through reduced lactose content
- Higher costs and formulation complexity remain key industry challenges
Functionality is often the key to product success. The right functionality can transform a product, completely altering its very nature. Such transformations can open up new avenues for consumer appeal.
Clear protein is an ingredient that has key functionalities in the high-protein drinks space.
It has enabled manufacturers to vastly expand their high-protein repertoires and means that protein is no longer relegated to thicker drinks such as dairy and smoothies, or to categories such as sports nutrition. It has opened the door to a new generation of lighter, more refreshing functional drinks. .
What is clear protein?
Clear protein typically refers to a highly filtered whey protein isolate that has been processed to remove fat, lactose and other components that cause cloudiness, explains Dr Nicolas Wüthrich, partner and global lead for agrifood and ingredients at consultancy Roland Berger.
It can deliver high levels of protein in a drink without creating the thickness and creaminess usually associated with protein shakes, explains Sarah Gaunt, CEO of food product development company SPG Innovation.
Clear protein fits soft drinks better than conventional proteins do, explains Wüthrich. Standard whey concentrate, casein, soy, and pea tend to make drinks cloudy and opaque, yet clear protein, as its name suggests, provides clarity.
Furthermore, the reduction of fat, lactose and minerals can reduce the off-taste that often comes with dairy proteins, as well as the chalkiness and grittiness. This, says Wüthrich, means a cleaner mouthful, which can provide a neutral base for fruity flavours like citrus, berry and tropical, as well as tea flavours.
Clear protein is also suitable for heat treatments such as high-temperature short-time pasteurisation, which are needed for shelf stability, and remains stable in the acidic range used for fruity soft drinks.
The presence of little-to-no lactose, fat or carbohydrates also supports low-calorie positioning, says Wüthrich.
What has it meant for the high-protein drinks sector?
Because of its solubility and lack of cloudiness, clear protein has allowed the high-protein drinks sector to radically expand its offerings, most notably putting protein in soft drinks.
Clear protein is “much more compatible with the sensory expectations consumers have of a soft drink” compared with other forms of protein, explains SPG Innovation’s Gaunt. Consumers expect such drinks to be light, refreshing and easy to drink.
This gives the category greater potential. Consumers are looking for more accessible ways to consume protein, says Gaunt. They don’t want a milky, viscous drink every time. Clear protein “opens protein up to different consumers, different times of day and particularly occasions where refreshment matters”.
Clear protein also helps beverage companies fulfil the needs of GLP-1 weight-loss drug users, explains Wüthrich. Because users often have low appetites, these drugs increase the relevance of clear protein in particular, as it can create easy-to-consume yet protein-dense drinks.
The ingredient has expanded the types of drinks that can be high protein to waters, electrolyte drinks and multifunctional beverages. Furthermore, the popularity of convenience, grab-and-go and RTD drinks has worked in clear protein’s favour.
“Clear protein is particularly suited to portable beverage occasions because it looks and drinks more like a mainstream refreshment product than a supplement shake,” says Wüthrich.
It is now easier to use from a manufacturer’s standpoint, he adds, due to better manufacturing capacity. Manufacturers now have better control of pH, heat treatment, foaming and flavour masking, which has increased the number who can produce stable clear-protein beverages.
Furthermore, isolates are now often engineered for clarity, low astringency, acidic stability and thermal processing, which reduces formulation risk.
The challenges of using clear protein
Nevertheless, the technical and sensory benefits offered by clear protein come at a price, says Wüthrich.
“Clear whey protein isolate generally carries a meaningful cost premium over standard whey protein concentrate and conventional whey protein isolate because it requires greater purification and application-specific processing.”
Furthermore, despite advancements, the process of adding clear protein to a soft drink is complex. “Clarity, protein level, pH, heat stability and flavour all interact,” says Gaunt, “so developing a good clear protein beverage is more complicated than simply adding protein to a soft drink.”
Adding value to the high-protein beverage category
“Clear protein has added meaningful value to the high-protein drinks category by expanding it beyond conventional creamy protein shakes and post-workout occasions,” says Wüthrich.
By widening the range of drinks that can be high protein, it allows the category to appeal to a wider range of consumers, including those interested in weight management, active lifestyle and general wellness.
Clear protein has broken the link between ‘high protein’ and ‘milky’, explains Gaunt. This, she says, “sounds like a relatively simple change, but commercially it is important because it expands both format and occasion”.
The biggest value contribution that the ingredient makes to the category, she says, is that it creates additional consumption occasions for protein, and potentially increases the number of times a consumer may choose a high-protein drink.
This is where the real value lies.
