Clear protein beverages: refresh your thinking on protein
Discover what consumers are looking for, where the opportunities lie and how NutriWhey™ Isolate Clear PA can help bring the next generation of refreshing protein drinks to life.
Discover what’s next in Clear Protein
Protein is moving beyond traditional, creamy shakes into a new world of refreshment. From performance and recovery to hydration, energy and everyday wellbeing, clear protein beverages create opportunities to deliver high-quality nutrition in lighter, more refreshing formats. For brands, that opens new occasions.
Lighter, fruit-led formats make it possible to think about protein in a different way: as refreshing hydration after an active day, an energy drink with added nutritional value, a lighter recovery option or a functional beverage designed for everyday wellbeing.
The complete beverage experience
This also changes the rules. If protein is going to move into familiar beverage occasions, it has to deliver not just as nutrition, but as a beverage. That means thinking about what consumers want from the complete experience:
More occasions
Protein is moving into everyday beverage moments beyond the gym.
More functionality
Hydration, energy, protein and wider wellbeing benefits increasingly meet in the same space.
More competition
Sports, beverage and lifestyle brands are all exploring functional refreshment.
Reshaping functional beverages with NutriWhey™ Isolate Clear PA
Introducing a pre-acidified whey protein isolate designed for refreshing protein beverages. Combining exceptional clarity with a complete amino acid profile, this ingredient offers a light body and neutral taste, alongside heat stability at low pH that gives formulators greater freedom across still and sparkling applications.
Nutri Whey™ Isolate Clear PA expands our clear protein capabilities, opening up possibilities in functional hydration, energy and wellness drinks – a market which is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 8.9% between 2025 and 2030. [i]
[1] Grand View Research, Functional Drinks Market (2025–2030)
Ultra-clear whey protein isolate
NutriWhey™ Isolate Clear PA is an ultra-clear whey protein isolate with 90% protein, pre-acidified for direct use as the protein base in acidic clear beverage formulations. It brings complete whey protein nutrition together with the clarity and clean sensory characteristics needed to develop refreshing clear protein concepts.
Function is meeting refreshment
Consumer interest in protein is increasingly meeting wider functional-beverage needs around areas such as hydration, energy and wellbeing. Yet functionality alone is not enough. Taste remains an important factor in beverage choice, raising the bar for clear protein products that aim to compete in the broader refreshment space. The opportunity is not simply to put protein into more drinks. It is to make protein relevant to more drinking occasions.
FiE Health Innovation Award Finalist 2026!
We’re proud that RE-VIBE has been selected as a finalist for the Fi Europe 2026 Health Innovation Award. Combining Nutri WheyTM Isolate Clear PA and prebiotic GOS in a refreshingly light, alcohol-free format, RE-VIBE is designed to bring functional nutrition into social occasions without compromising on taste or enjoyment.
We’re inviting protein to the party
Come visit us at Fi Europe to discover what makes this concept stand out and try it yourself.
Read more about clear protein
Discover our clear protein applications at FiE yourself and explore more insights.
“At this year’s FiE we’re excited to share how consumer trends reshape protein beverage development. We hope to see you there.”
Stella Effraimidou, Technical Sales Specialist
Evelien Bikker, Innovation Marketing Manager
Bring your clear protein idea to life with FrieslandCampina Ingredients
A strong clear protein concept takes more than the right whey protein ingredient, like Nutri Whey™ Isolate Clear PA. It requires an understanding of the intended consumer, the nutritional proposition and the formulation and processing decisions that shape the finished beverage. FrieslandCampina Ingredients combines these areas to support clear protein development.
Consumer understanding
Identify relevant needs, benefits, occasions and proposition territories.
Protein expertise
Build on longstanding dairy protein and ingredient knowledge.
Application support
Work through challenges around flavour, acidity, clarity, stability, mouthfeel and processing.
Partnership
Connect consumer needs, nutritional ambition and technical execution.
Support towards scale
Develop with quality, consistency and future commercialisation at scale in mind.