“Nutrition Improvement Is No Longer a Trend — It’s a Structural Necessity” — Sergei Kiselev
Sergei Kiselev, VP Research & Development at Al Ain Farms Group, will speak at MENA Congress 2026, where he will address one of the most pressing questions facing the dairy industry: how to improve nutritional value without compromising taste, texture, and shelf life.
Is improving the nutritional profile of dairy products today a real necessity or still more of a market trend? What is driving this shift?
The shift fr om “trend” to “necessity” is very real, driven by evolving consumer expectations. Health has become a personal priority with consumers actively seeking higher protein, less sugar, smart enrichment, and tangible benefits, not abstract promises.
Equally important is convenience. Nutrition must fit seamlessly into daily routines: easy formats, portable packaging, and affordable pricing. If a product is nutritious but inconvenient or expensive, it won’t scale. There is also a growing expectation around sustainability and ethical confidence. Consumers increasingly connect nutrition with responsible sourcing, respect for animal welfare, and planet-friendly choices. Trust in how products are made is becoming part of perceived nutritional value. These drivers are structural and consumer-led – health priorities, lifestyle compatibility, ethical awareness, and rising nutrition literacy. They are unlikely to reverse, which is why nutrition improvement is now a necessity.
How have consumer expectations in the UAE and the wider MENA region changed when it comes to nutrition in dairy products?
Three shifts stand out, and at Al Ain Farms Group, we see these play out every day in how consumers respond to our products. Fr om fat reduction to smart nutrition, consumers now seek reduced sugar, elevated protein, and functional benefits like gut health and immunity – without sacrificing the creamy, satisfying experience they expect. Performance and convenience are inseparable. The region's fitness-oriented and professional demographics demand ready-to-drink protein, drinkable yoghurts, and portable formats that fit demanding schedules – without clinical associations.
Trust and simplicity matter more. Consumers want clean labels, fewer unfamiliar ingredients, and confidence in consistent quality. In hot-climate supply chains, shelf-life and batch consistency are engineering challenges as much as formulation ones.
The fundamental insight: consumers expect nutritional advancement without sensory or convenience trade-offs. That's the challenge we embrace.
What are the main technological challenges in improving nutrition without sacrificing taste, texture, and shelf life?
This is wh ere dairy transitions fr om food science into genuine product engineering. Let me walk through the key challenges – and how we tackle them at Al Ain Farms Group.
Sugar reduction is the most complex challenge. Sugar affects far more than sweetness – it influences flavour balance, viscosity, mouthfeel, and fermentation. Removal can cause thin body, disrupted acidity, or metallic off-notes. At Al Ain Farms Group, we approach this through comprehensive system redesign, reworking sweetening architecture, solids management, protein structuring, and process optimisation rather than simple ingredient swaps.
Protein enrichment carries its own complications – chalky mouthfeel, heat instability, sedimentation, and muted flavour release. We manage this through precise protein selection, mineral balance, and careful control of thermal and homogenisation parameters.
Fat modification creates tension with sensory expectations. Reducing fat diminishes creaminess and flavour delivery – especially in hot climates wh ere emulsion stability is harder to maintain. Our formulation team works closely with our sensory lab to ensure reduced-fat products still deliver the experience consumers expect.
Shelf-life in MENA is challenging. Even with cold chain infrastructure, distribution variability is common. We test products not just under laboratory conditions, but across real-world logistics scenarios – stress-testing for the realities of regional distribution.
Our in-house sensory lab is central to all of this. Every reformulation is validated through consumer testing and sensory panels before it reaches production. We don't launch products that only satisfy the formulator – they must satisfy the consumer.
How does Al Ain Farms approach nutrition-focused product development in practice? What principles guide your R&D work?
We start with the consumer, not the claim. Our approach – what we call "nutrition-by-design" – begins with understanding what consumers actually want: taste, texture, convenience, and shelf-life. We then engineer nutritional improvements that work within those expectations, not against them.
Consumer-led targets take precedence. We define success through taste acceptance, texture preference, and shelf-life performance, then optimise nutrition within those constraints.
System thinking is essential. In dairy, isolated reformulation doesn't work. Sugar reduction may require changes to fermentation, thermal processing, homogenisation, stabilisers, and packaging. These elements are interdependent.
Clean label wh ere it adds value, functionality where it's required. The goal: minimal ingredient complexity, maximum product robustness.
Evidence-based iteration governs development. We progress through bench prototyping, pilot trials, industrial validation, and stability testing. Sensory testing identifies rejection drivers, analytical work tracks protein, carbohydrates, and viscosity.
Ultimately, we prioritise performance over positioning. Nutritional improvements only matter if they generate repeat purchase, not just trial.
Looking ahead, do you believe “better-for-you” dairy products will become the industry standard, or remain a niche segment?
I'm confident this becomes the standard – though how we define "better-for-you" will evolve. Baseline expectations will shift. Lower added sugar, higher protein, and smarter fortification will become standard across key formats. Transparent labelling and simplified ingredients will be fundamental requirements, not premium differentiators.
Some segments will remain specialised – functional products with clinically proven probiotics, lactose-free formulations, plant-based alternatives – but they'll continue to grow as consumer needs diversify.
The critical insight: "better-for-you" won't stay on a separate shelf forever. It will become mainstream dairy. Consumer expectations don't regress and the industry must prepare for nutritional excellence as the norm.
What are your expectations from the MENA Dairy Congress 2026, and which discussions or outcomes would be most valuable for you and the industry?
We seek outcomes that advance the industry's capacity to deliver nutritional improvements without compromising quality or sustainability.
Scientific clarity on reformulation at commercial scale, we need deeper technical discourse on sugar reduction in fermented dairy – examining fermentation dynamics, texture, and flavor. The industry benefits more from honest case studies, including what didn't work, than selective success narratives.
Shelf-life robustness under MENA conditions require collaboration on packaging advancement, oxygen management, cold chain variability, and oxidation control that would establish shared knowledge and a realistic technical baseline for regional distribution.
Evidence-based health positioning - when discussing gut health or protein satiety, we must align what's scientifically defensible, regulator-accepted, and consumer-understandable.
Sustainability and nutrition as integrated challenges requires frameworks that optimize across nutrition, sensory, shelf life, cost, and sustainability – all taken as equally important priorities.
_________________________________________________
The shift fr om “trend” to “necessity” is very real, driven by evolving consumer expectations. Health has become a personal priority with consumers actively seeking higher protein, less sugar, smart enrichment, and tangible benefits, not abstract promises.
Equally important is convenience. Nutrition must fit seamlessly into daily routines: easy formats, portable packaging, and affordable pricing. If a product is nutritious but inconvenient or expensive, it won’t scale. There is also a growing expectation around sustainability and ethical confidence. Consumers increasingly connect nutrition with responsible sourcing, respect for animal welfare, and planet-friendly choices. Trust in how products are made is becoming part of perceived nutritional value. These drivers are structural and consumer-led – health priorities, lifestyle compatibility, ethical awareness, and rising nutrition literacy. They are unlikely to reverse, which is why nutrition improvement is now a necessity.
Three shifts stand out, and at Al Ain Farms Group, we see these play out every day in how consumers respond to our products. Fr om fat reduction to smart nutrition, consumers now seek reduced sugar, elevated protein, and functional benefits like gut health and immunity – without sacrificing the creamy, satisfying experience they expect. Performance and convenience are inseparable. The region's fitness-oriented and professional demographics demand ready-to-drink protein, drinkable yoghurts, and portable formats that fit demanding schedules – without clinical associations.
Trust and simplicity matter more. Consumers want clean labels, fewer unfamiliar ingredients, and confidence in consistent quality. In hot-climate supply chains, shelf-life and batch consistency are engineering challenges as much as formulation ones.
The fundamental insight: consumers expect nutritional advancement without sensory or convenience trade-offs. That's the challenge we embrace.
What are the main technological challenges in improving nutrition without sacrificing taste, texture, and shelf life?
This is wh ere dairy transitions fr om food science into genuine product engineering. Let me walk through the key challenges – and how we tackle them at Al Ain Farms Group.
Sugar reduction is the most complex challenge. Sugar affects far more than sweetness – it influences flavour balance, viscosity, mouthfeel, and fermentation. Removal can cause thin body, disrupted acidity, or metallic off-notes. At Al Ain Farms Group, we approach this through comprehensive system redesign, reworking sweetening architecture, solids management, protein structuring, and process optimisation rather than simple ingredient swaps.
Protein enrichment carries its own complications – chalky mouthfeel, heat instability, sedimentation, and muted flavour release. We manage this through precise protein selection, mineral balance, and careful control of thermal and homogenisation parameters.
Fat modification creates tension with sensory expectations. Reducing fat diminishes creaminess and flavour delivery – especially in hot climates wh ere emulsion stability is harder to maintain. Our formulation team works closely with our sensory lab to ensure reduced-fat products still deliver the experience consumers expect.
Shelf-life in MENA is challenging. Even with cold chain infrastructure, distribution variability is common. We test products not just under laboratory conditions, but across real-world logistics scenarios – stress-testing for the realities of regional distribution.
Our in-house sensory lab is central to all of this. Every reformulation is validated through consumer testing and sensory panels before it reaches production. We don't launch products that only satisfy the formulator – they must satisfy the consumer.
How does Al Ain Farms approach nutrition-focused product development in practice? What principles guide your R&D work?
We start with the consumer, not the claim. Our approach – what we call "nutrition-by-design" – begins with understanding what consumers actually want: taste, texture, convenience, and shelf-life. We then engineer nutritional improvements that work within those expectations, not against them.
Consumer-led targets take precedence. We define success through taste acceptance, texture preference, and shelf-life performance, then optimise nutrition within those constraints.
System thinking is essential. In dairy, isolated reformulation doesn't work. Sugar reduction may require changes to fermentation, thermal processing, homogenisation, stabilisers, and packaging. These elements are interdependent.
Clean label wh ere it adds value, functionality where it's required. The goal: minimal ingredient complexity, maximum product robustness.
Evidence-based iteration governs development. We progress through bench prototyping, pilot trials, industrial validation, and stability testing. Sensory testing identifies rejection drivers, analytical work tracks protein, carbohydrates, and viscosity.
Ultimately, we prioritise performance over positioning. Nutritional improvements only matter if they generate repeat purchase, not just trial.
Looking ahead, do you believe “better-for-you” dairy products will become the industry standard, or remain a niche segment?
I'm confident this becomes the standard – though how we define "better-for-you" will evolve. Baseline expectations will shift. Lower added sugar, higher protein, and smarter fortification will become standard across key formats. Transparent labelling and simplified ingredients will be fundamental requirements, not premium differentiators.
Some segments will remain specialised – functional products with clinically proven probiotics, lactose-free formulations, plant-based alternatives – but they'll continue to grow as consumer needs diversify.
The critical insight: "better-for-you" won't stay on a separate shelf forever. It will become mainstream dairy. Consumer expectations don't regress and the industry must prepare for nutritional excellence as the norm.
What are your expectations from the MENA Dairy Congress 2026, and which discussions or outcomes would be most valuable for you and the industry?
We seek outcomes that advance the industry's capacity to deliver nutritional improvements without compromising quality or sustainability.
Scientific clarity on reformulation at commercial scale, we need deeper technical discourse on sugar reduction in fermented dairy – examining fermentation dynamics, texture, and flavor. The industry benefits more from honest case studies, including what didn't work, than selective success narratives.
Shelf-life robustness under MENA conditions require collaboration on packaging advancement, oxygen management, cold chain variability, and oxidation control that would establish shared knowledge and a realistic technical baseline for regional distribution.
Evidence-based health positioning - when discussing gut health or protein satiety, we must align what's scientifically defensible, regulator-accepted, and consumer-understandable.
Sustainability and nutrition as integrated challenges requires frameworks that optimize across nutrition, sensory, shelf life, cost, and sustainability – all taken as equally important priorities.
_________________________________________________
Gold Sponsor of the MENA Dairy Congress is Al Ain Farms.
Our partners: Super Food FZCO, International Dairy Federation (IDF).
If you would like to participate in the MENA Dairy Congress, please complete the registration form below:
Loading...
