Many industry professionals associate dairy drinks with the refrigerated dairy case. But of the more than 5,500 dairy drinks introduced worldwide, over half were designed for ambient storage, according to Innova Market Insights. In addition, virtually all of the clinical nutrition beverages and the sports and energy drinks (which use generous amounts of dairy ingredients) are formulated for ambient conditions.
To achieve shelf stability, these ready-to-drink (RTD) beverages will be subjected to a heat process, which will put dairy proteins to the test.