Chr. Hansen launches innovative cultures for perfectly healthy drinking yoghurts

Two years of thorough research and development now result in the first range of cultures specifically for drinking yoghurt.

Chr. Hansen now introduces a series of YoFlex® and probiotic nu-trish® cultures specifically developed to manufacture drinking yoghurt, one of the fastest growing sectors of the dairy market according to www.dairyfoods.com (global sales of yoghurt drinks topped 7.2 billion liters in 2008 – and the trend is rising).

The new products make it possible to ensure optimum quality in terms of smoothness and a pleasant mouthfeel, with the potential of removing starch/thickeners, which are currently used, at extra cost for the producer, in the majority of drinking yoghurts.

Available in three different flavor profiles the cultures “Mild”, “Classic” and “Twist” make it easier for dairy producers to meet consumer expectations by enabling production of low fat products with a short ingredient list, which are tasty, smooth and with probiotic health benefits from Bifiodobacterium BB-12®.

Meet predominant health trend

”Drinking yoghurts are a great vehicle for providing probiotics to consumers, as they can be provided in an adequate daily dosage in a convenient form. Consumers want the health benefit provided by the probiotic BB-12®, but this must be in combination with good taste and texture, and this is exactly what the new cultures ensure,” says Sarita Bairoliya, Global Marketing Manager, Probiotics, Chr. Hansen.

According to the global market intelligence agency Mintel, the main trends within drinking yoghurts are health considerations (low fat, low sugar), functional benefits (health effects above nutrition), natural, clean label (without addition of unnecessary ingredients and fortifications (added vitamins and mineral). The new cultures enable dairy producers to produce products that are lower in fat and sugar whilst at the same time offering a top-of-the-range flavor and texture.

Eliminate the need for thickeners

Chr. Hansen relied on its strong international development organization in combination with its competence level within selection and characterization of lactic acid bacteria and composing of unique cultures. This has been the backbone in the development of the company’s first range for drinking yoghurt.

“In addition to the benefits described our new cultures address a number of problematic areas traditionally linked to producing drinking yoghurt such as graininess and off-flavor from thickeners,” adds Morten Boesen, Marketing Manager, Fermented Milk Cultures, Chr. Hansen.

Today the majority of drinking yoghurts are stabilized to improve texture indicating that texture is indeed important and not satisfactorily covered by the current cultures in the market. As a forerunner in the global dairy industry, Chr. Hansen set out to develop new cultures to serve the growing market for yoghurt cultures.

Understanding leads to innovation

“The fist step was to build a foundation of knowledge based on sampling a huge amount of drinking yoghurts world-wide. This enabled us to establish specific quality parameters from which we could work our way back in the development chain.

The result is new cultures with excellent smoothness and mouthfeel properties that are robust enough to withstand the harsh production processes needed to obtain homogeneous drinkable products.

With the new range we are introducing a premium solution for producers of drinking yoghurts. To our knowledge ours is the first range specifically developed for this purpose,” Boesen concludes.
Meet us at HI Europe in November

Chr. Hansen will showcase its new products at the Health Ingredients Europe event in Madrid on November 16-18, 2010.