Dairy Farmers Thick & Creamy yoghurt has taken the winning prize of the Dairy category at the Challenge Awards.
Developed to revolutionise the sweetened yoghurt market by introducing a premium quality product, Dairy Farmers have delivered a superior flavour and texture inside innovative packaging , appealing to current yoghurt lovers and bringing new consumers into the segment.
Thick & Creamy has a number of ingredients that make the product unique. Developed through intensive consumer research, the aim was to produce a yoghurt that addressed the shortcomings of current products on the market.
The yoghurt base contains cultures that provide a distinctive taste, including acidophilus and bifidus strains for health, to bring out the creaminess of the milk. The key to the characteristic creaminess and thickness of the yoghurt is the ratio of milk components present in the product and the combination of fat and protein from the milk works with the thickeners to give the yoghurt its distinctive texture as well as its melt-in-the-mouth mouthfeel.
The Strawberry Thick & Creamy yoghurt contains big chunks of strawberry pieces which are soft to bite into, and part of the product’s innovation is seen in terms of the size of fruit pieces and their taste and texture.
The process for making Thick & Creamy yoghurt is new and unique to Dairy Farmers. To make it possible, a new processing line was designed, installed and set up, with parameters designed specifically to produce the ideal yogurt.
The new equipment was necessary to ensure Thick & Creamy was a step up in quality in all aspects. The processing conditions were optimised to protect the milk protein structure, producing an ideal yoghurt with no cooked notes, stringy or sloppy texture.
The processing of the fruit was achieved in a special coating of the raw material to ensure the texture of the fruit remains intact as much as possible through the cooking stages of processing. The fruit and yoghurt components are blended using a gentler system, ensuring that the texture is maintained and that the fruit pieces stay intact.
The materials used in the packaging of Thick & Creamy were designed to again differentiate the product. These consist of polypropylene tubs, wrapped in a cardboard sleeve, all made from renewable resources and fully recyclable. As a confirmation of Thick & Creamy’s appeal, one in every eight households purchased Thick & Creamy in the first ten weeks after its launch.
Lena Zak is the editor of FOOD Magazine.