Formulating with fruit, nuts and chocolate helps dairy processors create innovative foods based on consumer needs. Inclusions can even solve processing issues, like avoiding chalkiness in calcium-fortified yogurts.
By choosing the right texturizing ingredients and handling them strategically, ice cream makers can craft an ice cream that performs properly and avoid the chemical-sounding additives consumers shun.
Acid whey disposal used to be an issue. A ‘natural’ blue color wasn’t available. And dairy processors want to reduce sugars. Suppliers developed solutions to all of these concerns.
For years, dairy formulators had few FDA-approved naturally derived color options in the green-blue-purple range. That has changed with the allowable use of spirulina extract.
The food and beverage industry whizzed past a major milestone in 2011, when for the first time ever the global value of the natural colorants market exceeded that of its synthetic counterparts.
Cultures and enzymes have become more specific over the past few years. They help dairy processors increase yield from milk and speed processing time. Cultures and enzymes also prolong the shelf life of foods, a real benefit for consumers.
Dairy processors add functional ingredients like protein, probiotics and fiber to create beverages for weight control, gut health and disease management.
If you need an icebreaker to use at a dairy-industry gathering, try this: “Functional foods: passing fad or future of the business?” It works wonders at sparking discussion.
After what feels like decades of straining to eat virtuously, the backlash has arrived in the form of a generalized weariness with the whole notion of “good for you.” How else to explain the success of foodservice stunts like the Pop-Tart ice cream sandwich from hamburger purveyor Carl’s Jr., or Taco Bell’s successful-beyond-belief Doritos Locos Taco?
Health advocates have been whacking the sugar piñata. Consumers say they are cutting back, but sales receipts tell a different story. Dairy processors seek sweetening systems that allow for flavor but reduce the calorie count.
Dairy processors are in the “customer-is-always-right” business. But lately, knowing just what the customer is right about can test the faculties of even the keenest student of consumer behavior.
Dairy processors have the processing equipment and the retail relationships so it makes sense to capitalize on the popularity of ready-to-drink coffee and tea beverages. Here’s what you need to know about developing these RTD drinks.