The Food Institute (ITA) of INTA Castelar achieved an unprecedented development in the country: mozzarella chips with high nutritional value, which concentrate the benefits of milk in a light, durable format and without the need for refrigeration. It is a solution specially designed to strengthen school feeding and improve access to quality food in different contexts.
For three years, an INTA research team worked on the design and improvement of this innovative product. “We wanted to create a practical, healthy and stable food that preserves the nutritional value of milk and, at the same time, can be easily distributed without depending on the cold chain,” explained Sergio Rizzo, one of the specialists who led the project.
“20 grams of the snack, approximately 12 chips, concentrate the nutritional value of a glass of milk,” said the researcher. “That means we can bring the benefits of a critical food in a ready-to-eat format, ideal for school-age children,” Rizzo added.
The development responds to a growing trend in the food industry: the search for healthy snacks that combine practicality, quality and nutritional contribution. But INTA’s achievement goes beyond the mass consumption market. Mozzarella chips represent a strategic tool to strengthen school feeding programs, especially in rural or hard-to-reach areas, where maintaining the cold chain is often an obstacle.
In addition to its nutritional value, the product is distinguished by its versatility. It is gluten and starch free, which expands its consumption potential. “We want it to be suitable for different audiences, even for those who have specific dietary requirements,” the researchers said.
Currently, mozzarella chips are in the pre-commercial stage and ready for technology transfer. INTA already has a company interested in its industrial development, but the project is open to new alliances. “We want this innovation to reach the market and benefit both schools and the general consumer. It is an opportunity for the national dairy industry to incorporate a product with high added value,” said the specialists.
Initiatives like these represent “an innovation that improves food, promotes added value at source and generates opportunities for local development,” he stressed.
INTA’s mozzarella chips thus condense a triple value: nutritional, technological and social. Not only they provide a healthy alternative for food programs, but they also open a new horizon for the dairy industry, the traditional engine of the Argentine productive interior.
In the words of the specialist: “This development synthesizes the best of our work: scientific knowledge at the service of the people. Turning milk into a food that is easy to transport and preserve means multiplying its benefits and bringing them closer to those who need it most.”
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