Online Exclusive: Rediscovering Yogurt

According to a recent article on FoodBusinessNews.net, yogurt is the fastest-growing product in the dairy category, with Mintels Global New Products Database logging 265 new products in 2007, up from 244 in 2006 and 189 in 2005. The same article cites data from Information Resources, Inc., Chicago, stating that for the year ending July 2008, yogurt sales in channels excluding Wal-Mart were up 9% from the previous year, topping $3.5 billion.

Mintels GNPD lists spoonable yogurt as the second most-active subcategory among all U.S. functional foods launched in 2007

Yet, while U.S. yogurt consumption has grown 33% during the past five yearsdoubling roughly every 7.2 yearsresearch from The Dannon Company, Inc., White Plains, NY, indicates that Americans still consume only about 11 pounds of yogurt per capita annually, putting our consumption at about one-seventh to one-sixth that of France.

Perhaps thats because Americans arent natural-born yogurt eaters. With its roots planted in Southern and Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean, the Middle East and Central Asia, yogurt long struck us as vaguely foreign. But that perception has changed. Decades ago, yogurt gained a foothold in the U.S. in health-food stores with natural products, explains Joe Klemaszewski, dairy applications food scientist, Cargill Texturizing Solutions, Wayzata, MN. Today, as dairy companies and retailers market natural and organic products, there are an increasing number of yogurts in these categories. These yogurts appeal to a broader audience than the products introduced in the 1970s, as todays products are sweeter, have a creamier texture, and a wider range of flavors.

Alan Reed, senior vice president, U.S. manufacturing and ingredient market, Dairy Management Inc. (DMI), Rosemont, IL, agrees. Yogurt is not a fringe category anymore, he says. Its very mainstream. Its in about 80% of consumers homes on a weekly basis, which is amazing. So, now that its not a little category, doubling that growth is going to require introducing some different things into the category than what weve seen before.

Something old, something new

A whole constellation of trends brings new life to yogurt. What we see as we add benefits is that the more compelling the benefit, the more likely it is to increase overall yogurt category growth, says Alan Reed, senior vice president, U.S. manufacturing and ingredient market, Dairy Management Inc. (DMI), Rosemont, IL.

Experts who watch the category point to drivers like convenience and value as sending new products onto the market. Drinkable and shot-style products in particular have benefited from their on-the-go delivery. I believe that U.S. consumers will keep discovering the attractiveness of drinking yogurts, which are convenient, healthful and refreshing, says Mirjana Curic-Bawden, Ph.D., senior scientist, Chr. Hansen, Inc., Milwaukee.

I believe that consumers are continuing to look for value, notes Sean Creedon, field technical service representative, Cargill. He points to products that provide multiple benefitsnutritional, sensory, portabilityin one package as answering that desire.

Scott Bodenhausen, team manager, dairy, Danisco USA, New Century, KS, predicts well all see an increase in market share for value-oriented private-label products as consumer spending drops off and people try to save money wherever they can. So the major producers may start to feel the pressure.

Even as consumers hunt for bargains with one hand, they grasp for indulgence with the other. The market for yogurt is segmenting into value and premium products, says Minerva Calatayud, global product manager, sweet goods, cheese, & dairy, Givaudan Flavors, Cincinnati. While she notes that global economic conditions remind us of the importance that food plays in providing value to consumers, she also points out that there is a strong desire for functional, healthful and green products. On the organic front, as many as 50 new organic cultured dairy items entered the U.S. market in 2007; moreover, yogurts have caught the clean-label bug, with many stripping their ingredient statements to the basics.

As Curic-Bawden says, Driven by consumer demand, some products cleaned up the ingredient list and now have reduced levels of added sugars, no high-fructose corn syrup and no artificial colors or flavors.

With concerns about sugar cooling the growth of kid-directed yogurts, new, all-natural sweetener alternatives could help redeem the segment with label-reading moms, says Jordi Ferre, vice president, general manager, PureCircle USA, Inc., Florham Park, NJ. Parents and health officials are increasingly concerned about the amount of sugar and calories in products marketed to children, he notes. Yogurt by itself is an inherently healthy product, and using Rebaudioside A to sweeten it keeps it that way while alleviating parental concerns about high sugar contents and artificial ingredients.

Modified starches and stabilizers, common ingredients in the fruit prep and white mass of conventional yogurts, arent always welcome in clean-label formulations, either. This leaves processors balancing market acceptability with product function. Chemically modified starches are not used in organic products, yet stability to shear during white-mass processing and acid stability in fruit is still needed, says Joe Klemaszewski, dairy applications food scientist, Cargill Texturizing Solutions, Wayzata, MN. Solutions developed for yogurt manufacturers include non-chemically modified starches, natural hydrocolloids such as pectins, or multi-component natural and organic stabilization systems. Which to use depends on a products processing, finished viscosity and shelf life. Low-methoxyl pectins can be used in cup-set or stirred yogurt, while high-methoxyl pectins would be used in fruit preps and drinkable yogurts, he says. These considerations are necessary not only in natural and organic yogurts, but in all cultured dairy products, as processes and target textures vary widely.

Not your plain-old yogurt

Sweet, fruity profiles are still tops with American consumers. Yogurt fruit flavors tend to follow the beverage market, says Kate Jacobsen, team manager, multiple food applications, Danisco. There are many choices available to mass-market exotic fruits, but the top sellers are still the mainstream strawberry, raspberry, blueberry and cherry fruit types.

Competition is drifting over from the dessert menu, however. According to Beth Jones, business development director, Kerry Food Ingredients, Beloit, WI, yogurt manufacturers are pursuing indulgent themes. Youve got apple turnover, youve got Boston creme pie, youve got white-chocolate-strawberry cheesecaketheyre all giving you a little bit of decadence, she says. These sinful flavors tend to be geared more toward adults; kids, she says, tend to be a little bit more mainstream, more conservative, in their flavor choices.

Superfruit profiles further enhance yogurts perception as a wellness food, Calatayud says. And, by adding real fruit preps and not just flavors, those perceptions turn into genuine health benefits.

The fruit contributes vitamins and fiber, Jacobsen says. And the fiber level could be further increased with the addition of (polydextrose), and the sucrose level could be reduced with sugar alcohols.

Flavor challenges

Other practical flavoring considerations include matching a yogurts flavor to its pH, which can range from 4.6 for most U.S. products down to 4.0 for European yogurts. In addition, says Kim Gray, senior application scientist, global application technologies, Givaudan: During the fermentation that converts lactose to lactic acid, flavors can be formed, such as acetaldehyde and diacetyl. Yogurt flavors should complement those compounds, as well as the sourness from the acid formation. Profiles that do so lie mainly in the fruit family, like berry. Vanilla is also a very common flavor that is associated in general with dairy, she says.

In contrast, chocolate and coffee profiles are less suited, says Declan Roche, commercial director, Kerry Food Ingredients, because those are much better at neutral pH. Theyre a lot more difficult to work with at the lower pHs found in yogurt.

Gray warns manufacturers to be on the lookout for flavor and protein interactions, as well. If proteins bind with flavors, for example, they may have fewer spaces for hydrogen bonding with water, which leads to syneresis. Flavoring nonfat applications also poses challenges, not only because fat generates and carries flavors, but because its presence affects flavor perception. Whenever fat is removed from any product, there will be mouthfeel, viscosity and texture differencesusually in a negative way for consumers, she says. From a flavor standpoint, there are two issues here. First, most flavors used are hydrophobic in nature. If the fat is removed, the partitioning of these compounds in the matrix directly influences the flavor release. This can lead to unbalanced flavor profiles. Secondly, flavors are generated from the fat during processing, and this now needs to be addressed from the standpoint of added flavor, which, for full-fat products in general, is not addressed.

Reduced-sugar applications are tricky, too. Sugar not only provides sweetness, but also solids content, Gray says. Therefore, fillers will need to be added to provide proper texture. Then there are the off notes associated with alternative sweeteners, which usually require masking solutions of their own. The addition of sweetness enhancers generally requires careful rebalancing of the entire flavor system, she says, as the change in perceived sweetness also changes the flavor impact.

No-sugar-added fruit preps are also difficult to process. Sugar gets infused into the fruit and makes it sturdier for processing; brightens the color; and makes the appearance more appealing, explains Kate Jacobsen, team manager, multiple food applications, Danisco USA, New Century, KS. By contrast, the pieces of fruit in sugar-free fruit preps tend to get very torn or shredded when moving through processing lines. To preserve fruit identity in low-solids preps, she suggests keeping process viscosity very low, but maintaining homogeneity of the fruit pieces throughout the entire batcha task that manufacturers can accomplish with pectin. Furthermore, she adds, viscosity of the fruit prep needs to be sufficient to keep the fruit pieces from sinking or floating in the matrix. It also needs to be pumpable and easy to mix into the base.

Given the popularity of innovative yogurt products, it seems it only requires a little creativity and technical know-how to keep things in a state of ferment.

Kimberly J. Decker, a California-based technical writer, has a B.S. in consumer food science with a minor in English from the University of California, Davis. She lives in the San Francisco Bay area, where she enjoys eating and writing about food. You can reach her at [email protected].

Web resources

2009 Tipped as Actively Healthy Year for Yogurts

The Dominant Culture:Yogurt for the Masses

Facts About Yogurt, Dairy Management Inc.

More resources

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Stabilizers

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