Infants Fed Specialty Fat See Intestinal Flora Similar to that of Breastfed Infants, Study Shows

InFat, a high beta-palmitate fat blend that mimics the fat composition of human milk fat, may help increase good bacteria such as Lactobacilli and Bifidobacteria, creating a gut microbial environment comparable to that of breastfed infants, a new study shows.

The study included 36 term infants-14 breast-fed and 22 formula-fed-who were randomly assigned to receive either formula with InFat or a control formula without any pre- or probiotics. Stool samples were collected at enrollment and at six weeks postnatal and were evaluated to determine the bacterial strains present.

The study was published in the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition. It was a double-blind, randomized, multicenter design. InFat is an ingredient from Advanced Lipids, which is a joint venture of lipids companies AAK (Malmo, Switzerland) and Enzymotec (Migdal HaEmeq, Israel), which sponsored the study.

“This trial indicates that InFat can significantly improve infant formula, making it closer to mother’s milk in terms of infants’ flora composition,” stated Yael Lifshitz, PhD, director of R&D for Enzymotec Infant Nutrition.

Another recently published study in the journal Calcified Tissue International showed that infants fed InFat saw increased bone strength.

The companies say InFat has a high percentage of palmitic acid in its sn-2 position, enabling the fat blend to mimic the composition of human milk fat in breast milk and enabling optimized uptake of calcium and energy as well as easy digestion.