Yoghurt from Arla Foods goes into orbit

The spaceship, Progress 17, arrived at the international space station, ISS, on Wednesday (March 2) evening carrying a small amount of yoghurt from Arla Foods.

After two days’ travel, the unmanned spacecraft docked with ISS almost 400 km above the earth at 20.10 GMT, having lifted off from Kazakhstan on Monday evening at 19.09 GMT. Its load comprised 2.3 tons of technical equipment, spare parts, oxygen, water and 86 containers of food, including Arla’s yoghurt.

“The fact that we’ve succeeded in developing a yoghurt for space is fantastic,” says Carsten Hallund Slot, Project Manager, Arla Foods Innovation. “We’re now writing Danish and Swedish dairy history.”

In order to supply food products to NASA the products must meet a number of rigorous tests. The same applied to Arla’s blueberry and raspberry flavoured yoghurt, which has found favour with astronauts and cosmonauts alike.

“They are the ones who decide which products they want to have in space. The Americans and Russians both asked for our yoghurt while staying at the international space station,” explains Carsten Hallund Slot.

As well as the space yoghurt, Arla has also submitted a powder-based chocolate milk containing D vitamins, calcium, fibre and probiotica for NASA’s approval. The product has a shelf-life of 24 months.

Arla’s work has received praise from NASA:

“Arla Foods has worked extremely hard to get these two products approved for space travel. Their work has produced results and we can confirm that Arla Foods has become skilled at developing dairy products for space,” said Anthony Pometto, Director of NASA’s Commercial Centre for Food Research, FTCSC.

Benefiting consumers
Experience from Arla’s space project will benefit ordinary consumers in the longer-term.

One potential target group are senior citizens because astronauts and cosmonauts to some extent suffer similar problems to elderly people, i.e. brittle bones, muscle and joint problems and stomach illnesses.

“Although the space project is fascinating, we’re not involved in it just for fun,” says Group Director Michael Stevns, Arla Foods, who spearheads the project. “It’s important that our new knowledge of nutrition and food safety benefits the ordinary consumer, too.”

Yoghurt from Arla Foods is sent into space in aluminium bags and is ready to eat.

The international space station, ISS, is in orbit 400 km above the earth. The space station is approx. 108m long, the equivalent of two jumbo jets placed end to end.
Photo: NASA

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