The usual Tuffi design is preserved, as the lids continue to be decorate in different colours (depending on the fat level) as well as the Tuffi cow.

New is the colour band of the respective fat level on the cup rand, which should provide more orientation on the shelf.

“You don’t often see a food quark in the round mug in the cooling shelf. The consumers of yogurt and skyr know that. Our Tuffi Quark is thus becoming a real eye-catcher, much more modern and ensures a high-quality appearance,” claims Ana-Paola Nagel, marketing manager at FrieslandCampina.

Quark is one of the most popular dairy products in Germany. Only fruit yogurt as well as fresh and H-milk are still more frequently consumed.

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Three research groups have investigated how this bitter taste can be prevented. For a long time, the calcium concentration was considered to be the trigger for the formation of so-called bitter peptides during fermentation. But it doesn’t seem to be that alone, the researchers concluded.

Rather, it is probably the interplay of calcium content and starter cultures. By selecting suitable mixtures of bacterial cultures for fermentation, it may be possible in the future to reduce the bitterness of the finished product or perhaps even avoid it entirely.

The project was funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) with a total of almost €450,000.

The so-called bitter peptides, which are responsible for the bitter aroma, are small protein fragments that are formed from larger proteins with the help of special enzymes, the peptidases.

“These fragments respond to our bitter sensors on the tongue. That’s why these foods are not spoiled, they just don’t taste so good to bitter-sensitive people,” explains professor Herbert Schmidt from the department of food microbiology and hygiene at the University of Hohenheim.

It is still unclear whether these peptidases come from the added lactic acid bacteria or come from the milk, if it is because they are produced by the cow and passed into the milk or because they get into the milk through contamination with other bacteria.

The question is, why are bitter peptides mainly found in products that have a high calcium content?

“The aim of our research project was to understand, how the bitter substances are released in the manufacturing process and which factors can reduce this,” professor Jörg Hinrichs from the dairy science and technology department says.

Fermented dairy products are created by the work of lactic acid bacteria. They are added to milk or milk concentrates as so-called starter cultures and convert the milk sugar into lactic acid and other substances.

Usually the manufacturers also add a small amount of rennet so that the milk coagulates better. The milk protein flocculates and can then be separated from the liquid part of the milk, the whey.

However, the lactic acid bacteria also need the protein in milk for their own nutrition. They break down larger proteins into smaller pieces so that they can be taken up into the cell. There the peptides are broken down even further and can then be used by the cells for their own protein metabolism. But if too many of these fragments remain in the dairy product, they can cause a bitter taste.

The formation of these bitter peptides during the fermentation process is a complex interaction between various milk components and the genes or enzymes of the bacteria. In order to better analyze these interactions, the scientists worked with various, in some cases newly developed, model systems.

A newly developed concentration and filtration process makes it possible, for example, to change and adjust the composition of the milk concentrate in a targeted manner before fermentation.

“In contrast to the classic manufacturing process, we first draw off the whey and then ferment the milk concentrate,” explains Hinrichs. “This method allows us to variably control the fat, calcium and protein content and thus simulate different compositions.”

Using this cream cheese model, the scientists analysed the effects of different fermentation conditions on the formation of bitter peptides, such as temperature and pH value as well as different bacterial cultures.

A number of lactic acid bacteria are used to make cream cheese products, most commonly Lactococcus lactis.

“The starter cultures used for fermentation are almost as diverse as the dairy products on the market,” says Schmidt.

In addition, as with almost all bacteria, there are different lineages with different properties, the so-called strains. “In one culture we found a mixture of 30 to 40 different strains,” Schmidt adds. “That doesn’t make the analysis and the targeted control of the fermentation process any easier.”

The scientists have nevertheless succeeded in identifying some of the genes, which play an important role in the formation and breakdown of the bitter peptides.

The focus of interest is the gene that is responsible for the formation of the peptidase. It was suggested that the activity of this peptidase gene could be regulated by calcium. New methods make it possible to record the activity of individual genes.

“It turned out that calcium has no influence on the activity of this gene. However, we know that the pH value has to drop below five within 24 hours during fermentation in order to reduce gene activity,” summarises Schmidt. “Of course, the easiest way would be, if we could breed strains, which don’t have this gene. Unfortunately, bacterial strains, which do not have the peptidase gene, cannot survive on their own. They need the other strains that produce the vital peptides for them.”

“We found a total of nine different regulation points for the enzyme activity. And depending on the bacterial strain, calcium can have a different effect. Sometimes it promotes enzyme activity and in another strain it reduces it,” notes professor Lutz Fischer from the department of biotechnology and enzyme science.

“In more recent work, however, there is a clear trend. The milk’s own enzymes from the cow, such as cathepsin and plasmin, are probably not the cause, Rather, it seems to be solely responsible for the added bacterial cultures, which are necessary for the fermentation of milk or milk concentrates,” he adds.

The challenge now is to put the different bacterial cultures together in such a way, so the bacteria can still perform their desired task, but, on the other hand, as few or none of the bitter peptides are contained in the finished product.

This is why the scientists’ recommendation to the manufacturers of starter cultures is to use enzymatic tests in addition to traditional culture and molecular biological techniques. According to the current state of knowledge, the formation of bitter peptides is mainly decided at the enzyme level.

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In the period from 2016 to 2019, the dairy industry significantly reduced the sugar and energy content of yogurt and quark preparations. The MRI reports that yogurt has 20% less sugar and quarks about 18% less. The energy content of yogurt for children was reduced by 22%, and in quark for children, it decreased by 9%. In addition, the sugar content of yogurt and quark preparations for children is below the respective category for adults.

The median of the market-relevant yogurt preparations for children has the lowest sugar content of all market-relevant yogurt preparations. Most of the market-relevant quark preparations for children also have less sugar on average than fruit quarks for adults.

The dairy industry is therefore well on the way to implementing its reduction and innovation strategy. The MIV industry contribution, according to which the dairy industry aims to reduce the total sugar content by 15% in the median for sweetened dairy products with a child-like appearance, is even exceeded by the dairies in the case of yogurt and quark preparations.

“This extraordinarily positive development extends the variety of healthy and tasty dairy products as part of a balanced diet on the food retail shelf,” said Gisela Runge, executive scientific director at the MIV.

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The company has fine-tuned its manufacturing process allowing it to dry blends of milk and live cultures and keep the cultures alive throughout the process and into the finished powder.

The resulting range of premium fermented powders (yogurt, quark powder and fermented milk powders) allows new developments to deliver the same live cultures and nutrition as traditional live culture products but without some of the hurdles of fresh yogurt. They are also naturally adapted to regions where harsh climate conditions might hinder milk production or pose a challenge when it comes to preserving fresh milk or refrigerated products.

“With our Epilac fermented powders, we can support manufacturers in the development of products designed to cater to consumers who are always pressed for time and looking for convenient, “on-the-go” snack options that are both healthy and indulgent,” said Mathieu Lucot, marketing manager at Epi Ingredients.

“And this new Kosher certification opens up new markets for our yogurt and fermented powders, notably in the US and some European countries.”

After the launch of a first concept, SoFlexi, featuring its yogurt powder in 2017, Epi Ingredients is working with its fermented powders again and is currently putting the finishing touches on a new revolutionary concept which will be unveiled later this year at Food Ingredients Europe and takes on a new dimension in light of the recent Kosher certification.

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Milk processing volume increased by 4.5% to 137,600 tonnes. The fall in price of drinking milk, cottage cheese and cream and the general weaker sales in these product groups reduced both the price and the volume of sales.

On the other hand, Schwälbchen AG was able to take advantage of the peak summer and dynamically increase its value in the coffee, ayran and sour milk products sectors. In total, the company’s revenues increased by 3.9% to €98.2 million in 2018.

At Harzmolkerei GmbH, sales of €5.3 million were lower than in the previous year.

In the bulk consumer trading segment, Schwälbchen Frischdienst GmbH, partially consolidated with Frischdienst Südwest GmbH, was able to increase sales by 2.9% to €99.2 million; this in an environment of fierce competition and structural change.

Consolidated total sales of the Schwälbchen Group increased by 3.8% to €186.3 million. The investments had a lower volume totaling €2.0 million.

Across the group, consolidated earnings for the year totalled €3.32 million.

The German milk market started 2019 under more balanced market conditions compared to the previous year. The volatility of the milk market remains, as does the difference in utilisation between fat and proteins.

For all manufacturers of drinking milk and fresh products – and thus also for Schwälbchen – 2019 points at a weak demand for drinking milk, cream and quark. In addition, the rising costs of transportation, energy, packaging and disposal are having an impact, making it increasingly difficult for the German dairy industry to obtain cost-covering sales prices for drinking milk, cream and quark.

The company therefore continues to pursue its differentiation strategy with Green Line, coffee beverage Caffreddo and ethnic brand Körfez, in order to remain competitive in trade and preferable among consumers.

In 2019 Schwälbchen Frischdienst GmbH will continue to live in the difficult, but dynamic competitive environment of the out-of-home market, so there’s no time to relax for the industry or the customer.

But Frischdienst GmbH and Frischdienst Südwest GmbH, as delivery specialists, are well prepared for these external challenges with customer, product range and logistics expertise as well as high-performance purchasing and operating structures.

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The new FrieslandCampina Consumer Dairy business group will be formed from the existing groups of FrieslandCampina Europe, Middle East & Africa, FrieslandCampina Asia and the consumer-focused activities of FrieslandCampina cheese, butter & milkpowder.

The new FrieslandCampina Specialised Nutrition business group will focus on speciality food, such as infant nutrition, sports nutrition and nutrition for elderly people.

FrieslandCampina Ingredients and FrieslandCampina Basic Dairy will target the business to business markets with the production and sales of basic products, including cheese, butter and milk powder. The latter will also be responsible for optimising the milk processing.

Roelof Joosten, CEO of Royal FrieslandCampina, says, “Our route2020 strategy is focused on better nutrition for consumers and a good living for our farmers, now and for generations to come.

In order to remain successful, we have to respond quicker to changes in consumer demand, customer needs and social developments.

“We can accomplish this by granting the business groups more independence and accelerating the decision-making process. With the simplification of the organisation and targeted innovations we invest in further strengthening our brands in the areas of speciality food, milk and other dairy-based beverages, yogurt, quark, cheese and ingredients.”

The restructuring of the organisation will also involve a change in the management of the company. The executive board will be reduced to the chief executive officer and the chief financial officer. Additionally, an executive leadership team will be formed, consisting of the two executive board members, the presidents of the four new business groups and the president of FrieslandCampina China.

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For example, the new milk salt product from Valio, Valio ValSa, can reduce the salt content of foods without compromising on taste. Valio has launched the new sodium reduced Valio ValSa spread and Maasdam type cheese line. These products contain 50 per cent less salt than ordinary margarine spreads and cheeses, without compromising on taste.

The demand for lactose free alternatives continues to grow rapidly as consumer awareness of lactose intolerance increases all around the world. Lactose free sales are predicted to grow by 75 percent in Europe between 2012 and 2016. As the world pioneer in lactose free technologies, Valio has now developed the first fully soluble entirely lactose free milk powders for consumers. Valio is first to produce soluble lactose free powders with the taste of real milk.

Gut health is one of the biggest global trends related to wellbeing. The gut is referred to as the second brain because of its massive significance to people’s overall wellbeing. Valio offers its Valio Gefilus products, which contain the world’s most researched lactic acid bacteria, Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG, along with vitamins C and D as well as the mineral calcium. Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG is not only the world’s most researched lactic acid bacterium but also unique in the property of how it attaches to the gastrointestinal wall and stays there. Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG was discovered in 1985 and to date its qualities have been researched in more than 800 scientific studies globally.

“We at Valio have a passion for purity and goodness. The key ingredient of all our products is fresh Finnish milk, shown by statistics to be some of the cleanest in the EU. The arctic environment, clean air and water together with our traceable supply chain that is in our own hands from the farm to the store shelves bring Valio a competitive edge in international markets”, says Paavo Salminen. “As Finland’s largest food exporter, we sell products to more than 60 countries. With our expertise, our partners will be able to listen to consumer needs. In addition to our recent launch of the sodium reduced Valio ValSa cheese and spread line, we also have some other innovations in the pipeline.”

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Mike Gallacher, chief executive of First Milk, says, “The scale of Glenfield Dairy follows a full strategic review by the Board over the summer. It will allow us to focus even more closely on our core businesses in hard cheese and liquid brokering. This is already starting to drive improvement with the business moving into a positive operating profit at mid-year, consistent with the phasing of our turnaround plan. We are confident that this focus will deliver improved milk prices and a more sustainable business model for shareholders.

Robert Graham, managing director of Graham’s The Family Dairy, comments, “This is an exciting acquisition for us as it allows us to extend our product range for customers and consumers even further, with the addition of cottage cheese and quark. In addition, this deal presents great potential to explore further new product development going forward.”

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The site in Zwettl will receive and deal with milk until the end of January. Thereafter, the site is to be sold.

Last year, Nöm spent €12 million on the expansion of its main location in Baden. A new 2,500 square metre production hall to produce 8,500 tons of cream cheese per year was built. This investment was the basis for the closure of the plants in Hartberg and Zwettl.

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The launch is part of the cooperative’s to make Arla a leading dairy brand name in the UK over coming years. It will be launching further products as well as range extensions across the dairy portfolio supported by above and below-the-line advertising campaigns. Arla sees a particular opportunity with launching products to compete within the yogurt category, with the UK yogurt market having seen value growth in recent years.

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It would surprise many people to learn that validation of the long-term, high-growth health opportunity for dairy is coming from Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, two companies better known for their carbonated sweetened beverages – a product type not associated with health and nutrition. But this is precisely what is happening.

Coca-Cola’s backing of the Dairy 2.0 trend – the renaissance of dairy as a healthy, wholesome food with natural benefits – has been thrown into the spotlight by its launch, in January 2015, of a new brand called Fairlife – an ultra-filtered milk that is high-protein (13g per 240ml), with 120 kcal per 240ml (25% fewer than regular milk) and is also lactose-free. And as a result of being lactose-free, it has half the sugars of regular milk. These elements of the product’s design connect it firmly to some of the key trends in our industry.

Coca-Cola has long had its eyes on an opportunity in dairy and has experimented with various brands for almost 15 years but this is the company’s first major attack on dairy.

PepsiCo already owns the Wim-Bill-Dann dairy business in Russia, has a joint venture with Almarai in Saudi Arabia and is attempting to build up
its presence in dairy in the US in a joint venture with Müller, the German dairy group.

“Nature’s health food” image boost

The PepsiCo and Coke ventures are risky; there
is no certainty of success. But the fact that these businesses have spotted the growth potential for dairy as “nature’s health food” illustrates the power of the strategy of Dairy 2.0.

Dairy benefits from being “naturally functional.” Many dairy foods (such as yogurt) are ranked in consumers’ minds alongside oats, almonds and other “naturally healthy” whole foods. This gives dairy a much stronger health marketing platform than many other categories in the supermarket. As a result it is credible in the mind
of the consumer to attach health messages to dairy – specifically messages that are perceived as a logical fit to dairy.

In addition, just like those other naturally functional food components, dairy is accumulating a growing body of research to support its benefits
– and these in turn, as they leak out into the media, are raising the positive profile of dairy among health-conscious consumers.

For 30 years health professionals have attempted to demonise dairy on the grounds of alleged
harm from its saturated fat content – producing a consumer obsession with low-fat dairy products in some countries, such as the US.

But the dietary recommendations that told people to limit consumption of dairy foods and only consume low-fat dairy had their foundations in inadequate science. A rising tide of significant studies is showing how baseless this advice is. Researchers are rolling back the negatives about dairy fat. The long-held view that dairy fat is connected to risk of cardiovascular disease has now been firmly debunked by a steady stream of good quality science, which suggests that dairy foods have a neutral or even beneficial effect on the risk of heart disease and diabetes.

One day we may see the obsession with low- or no-fat dairy products has been a huge mistake. Far from improving health, they could have contributed to some of the growing health problems of the last two decades.

It will be some time – perhaps 10 years – before dairy companies can communicate that dairy fat has cardiovascular and other benefits because
the “low fat paradigm” is so well-entrenched in consumers’ minds – particularly older consumers.

Shift in dairy strategy

The big shift in dairy strategy that has occurred over the last four-to-five years is from “Dairy 1.0” to “Dairy 2.0”. Coca-Cola’s launch of Fairlife is
a perfect example of this shift – had the company launched a dairy product 10 years ago – in the days of Dairy 1.0 – you can
bet the emphasis would have been on an added ingredient, such as plant sterols or marine omega-3s (fish oils). But today the emphasis is on protein and calcium, which are natural, intrinsic advantages of dairy, coupled with lactose-free and/or a lower sugar message.

In Dairy 2.0, dairy innovation is no longer focused on positioning dairy as a competitor with dietary supplements but on:

· Ingredients and benefits that are a more logical and “easy to accept” fit with dairy – in particular, protein.

· Ingredients and benefits that are “as natural as possible.”

· Lowering sugar content, often by using lactose-free technology

· New and more interesting product formats – usually in the form of companies reinventing “old formats” or taking traditional regional dairy products from one geography and launching them into new geographies where they are new and exciting, but adapted to suit the tastes of the new markets.

· Taste and texture, in particular re-establishing dairy’s strengths in the minds of the consumer. The recent surge in higher protein products is one element of this since protein significantly adds to a dairy product’s pleasurable mouthfeel.

Huge scope exists to create new brands – Coca-Cola’s Fairlife is a perfect example of a new Dairy 2.0 brand.

Arla Foods has also shown with its WingCo brand that there’s a premium-priced niche market in Europe for higher protein foods. Wing-Co is said to “shoot down hunger fast,” which is a clever way of communicating a satiety benefit without using a health claim. Launched in 2013 in the UK, this milk drink has 40% more protein than most other milk drinks (25g per 500g bottle). It retails in 500g bottles at €1.28. Backed by some clever marketing it achieved over €25 million in retail sales in its first year.

New markets for traditional products

There is also huge scope to re-position and reinvent traditional dairy foods for new markets and new consumers.

In a classic Dairy 2.0 strategy, UK based farmer-owned dairy First Milk has introduced UK consumers to quark – a soft cheese that is widely consumed in Germany but almost unknown in the UK.

Aside from its indulgent, creamy consistency, quark has many benefits, including naturally lower salt content, higher protein content and naturally low sugar content. It also has versatility as a standalone dessert or for use in cooking.

Sold under the Lake District Dairy brand it has attracted higher income, older, “foodie” consumers and exceeded sales expectations, becoming market leader in quark, growing the market by 37% and achieving higher repeat purchase rates than leading yogurt brands.

Dairy fat is good

Perhaps one of the biggest shifts is in relation to dairy fat. Low-fat diets for health, and as a result low-fat dairy, have been the iron orthodoxy for 30 years. But now that scientific orthodoxy has been overturned, with even the American Heart Association saying that it is downgrading low fat diets. As Dr. Darius Mozaffarian of Harvard School of Public Health was quoted as saying: “There is no evidence that low-fat dairy products are healthier than high-fat dairy.”

The change can be seen in falling sales of vegetable-based table spreads, with Unilever now rumoured to be putting its business up for sale.

Meanwhile, butter has started a slow bounce-back, which began with foodies increasingly using it in home cooking, solely on the basis of better taste. In the US in 2010 butter sales overtook those of vegetable spreads for the first time since the 1950s and have widened the gap every year since.

In 2014 consumption of butter is expected to be 2.54 kg per capita, while that of vegetable spreads has fallen below 1.5kg. 
According to Nielsen data, sales of vegetable spreads fell to $1.5 billion (€1.2 billion) in the year ended May 2014, while butter sales rose to more than $2.3 billion (€1.85 billion).

Sweden is leading the way in Europe in downgrading the low-fat dietary advice, but Europe will be slower to change. However, the change will come, and while older consumers will not shake off the bad dietary advice about low fat that they were brought up with, younger consumers – people who are today in their teens – will grow up with the paranoia about fat and this will lead a gradual shift back towards whole-food dairy, with its fat content intact.

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In 2012 Danone entered America’s $1.4 billion (€1.03bn) market Greek yogurt market with its Oikos brand. In 2012 Oikos earned $283.8 million (€209.3m) and in 2013 is on track for $400 million – making it the most successful product launch ever (not only in dairy, but in any category).

It’s a success that is a tribute to the Danone marketing machine, to its skills as a fast-follower (though never, these days, an innovator), to its ability to invest in advertising, secure shelf-space – and deliver a good product. But it’s only a sign of the massive shift, which has taken place in dairy nutrition.

Internationally, dairy has long been at the leading edge of functional food development, with brands such as Yakult and Danone Activia creating global successes.

The first wave

Dairy 1.0, the first wave of functional dairy products, was a two-decades-long effort to shoehorn into dairy products ingredients ranging from plant sterols, omega-3s and CLA, to glucosamine and many others, in order to market medicalised benefits such as lowering cholesterol, heart health and joint health. It was the added ingredients providing the health benefit, rather than a “whole dairy food” product format.

Some were very successful, such as probiotics. Other ingredients, such as marine omega-3s, were not. Among the reasons were:

1. Ingredient not a logical fit to the carrier (fish oil in yogurt anyone?)

2. The product didn’t deliver an effective dose (you can supply a full dose of probiotics in a yogurt easily enough, but a big dose of omega-3s, magnesium or whatever starts to have a negative taste effect and turn consumers off).

But this period is over. The new direction is what some companies are calling “Dairy 2.0.”

In Dairy 2.0, dairy innovation is no longer focused on positioning dairy as a competitor with dietary supplements, but on:

a) Ingredients and benefits that are a more logical and “easy to accept” fit with dairy

b) New and more interesting product formats, usually in the form of companies reinventing “old formats” or taking traditional regional dairy products from one geography and launching them into new geographies where they are “new and exciting,” but adapted to suit the tastes of the new markets.

Dairy 1.0 and Dairy 2.0 are summarised in Table 1 (right).

Three examples

Here are three examples of Dairy 2.0 in action. The first is Greek yogurt. An entrepreneur took what is an everyday and unexciting product in Europe and presented it as new and exciting to consumers in the US under the brand Chobani.

The Greek segment has grown to about $1.6 billion in the US, from essentially nothing five years ago. Naturalness, great texture, a focus on great flavours and the perceived benefits of naturally high protein content have all contributed to the Greek yogurt success story.

Meanwhile, dairy giant Danone launched its own Oikos brand in 2012 – since then it has became the most successful new product launch ever in the US.

Secondly, kefir originated in Eurasia, where its digestive health benefits have been known for centuries, and was introduced to Americans by Lifeway Foods, which has created a successful business with $100 million in sales in 2012.

Thirdly, quark, a soft fresh cheese, is commonplace in many parts of northern Europe. In the last year, its all-natural, high-protein, low-fat credentials have produced 100 per cent growth in some markets. But it’s a little-known product in the UK, where the Lake District Dairy, a farmer-owned co-operative, has launched the UK’s first quark brand.

Source: New Nutrition Business, www.new-nutrition.com

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Among the many casualties were five organic milk producers around the market town of Tübingen. The price for their output had been reduced substantially during Allgäuland’s troubles and so when the local Tübingen cheesemaking plant finally closed they took the decision to strike out on their own, forming a new company “Tübinger Bio-bauernmolkerei” (The Tübingen Organic Farm Dairy). A deal was forged with Arla which involves the dairy collecting milk from farms and processing it before returning it to the farmers for selling in 1 litre sachets. Around 20 retail outlets in the immediate area sell the product under a new label “Tubio.” The farmers have also started setting up automatic dispensers for the milk in villages that do not have retail points.

Around Tübingen the public has rallied round and invested €300,000, buying shares in a new processing and packaging plant that opened its doors in October 2013. A further €800,000 comes from the regional government and, naturally, from the farmers themselves. Annual processing capacity of the new plant is around 2 m kg. The aim is to start yogurt and quark production too with cash being saved through importing used processing machinery from a closed-down dairy in Croatia.

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Biedermann, a pioneer in the commercial production of milk and milk products from organically managed farms, has purchased a 24% stake in Gläserne Molkerei, which declares regionality and transparency as two of its most important production factors. Products include milk, butter, milk powders, cream, yogurt, quark and cheese. Total milk processed is around 100 m kg/year collected from 100 organic farms. Emmi sources say the aim is to greatly increase the Emmi presence in the northern European organic dairy foods market with more exports of Swiss bio products into the region supported by the Gläserne Molkerei marketing networks.

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In just four years a start-up company has achieved what much bigger companies have spent over a decade trying, and failing, to do: create awareness of protein in the mass market as a health ingredient. And the most important fact that everyone in industry has learnt from the experience – or rather re-learned – is that it is taste, texture and pleasure, more than health benefits, that made it happen.
Every single supplier of protein has a Powerpoint slide that spells out their ambition to move protein from its current core market – the powders consumed by body builders and hard-core sports people – into the mass market.
But exactly how to take protein away from its association with the body-building market and win more mainstream acceptance for protein-fortified foods and beverages was a problem that no one had solved, until Hamdi Ulukaya cracked the future of protein.
Ulukaya, a Turkish immigrant to America whose family had been cheese-makers back home in Turkey for generations, launched yogurt brand Chobani in America. It rocketed from zero to almost US$1 billion in retail sales in just four years.
Its thick, satisfying texture was something that was new to American consumers and those benefits came from Greek yogurt’s naturally high protein content – 15g per 100g. The presence of protein is a selling point to a small but increasing number of consumers. But we should not fool ourselves. Greek yogurt is successful because it tastes fantastic – the protein is a secondary benefit, and maybe not even that for most buyers.

Raising awareness
What Chobani and other brands have done is to help raise awareness of protein among a wider audience – and it has done so at a time when protein’s image as a valuable part of a diet that helps people manage their weight has received several boosts, most recently in November 2010 following the publicity surrounding the results in the New England Journal of Medicine of the world’s largest diet study.
The large-scale randomised study, called Diogenes, investigated the optimum diet composition for preventing and treating obesity. The study was conducted by eight European research centres and headed by Thomas Meinert Larsen, PhD, and Professor Arne Astrup, Head of Department at the Faculty of Life Sciences (LIFE), University of Copenhagen, and it was funded by an EU grant of €14.5 million.
The researchers found that high-protein, low-glycemic index (GI) diets were the most effective for weight management. The researchers favoured diets with 25% of calories from high-quality, low-fat protein sources such as whey protein, and commented that “current dietary recommendations are not optimal for preventing weight gain.” Their recommendation is a higher intake of (high quality) protein than current guidelines recommend; eating this way, they say, means you can also eat until you are full without counting calories and without gaining weight.
Because of the quality and scale of the study it is already having an impact on the world of nutrition, on consumer beliefs and on consumer communications.
And while the dairy industry has been slow to capitalise on the good news about protein, others have not. Kellogg’s Special K breakfast cereal – the world’s biggest weight management food brand – communicates about Diogenes on its Australian website, while the UK’s biggest weight loss programme – Slimming World – has switched to recommending high-protein dairy.
Although dairy is a natural source of protein, and there are naturally high-protein dairy products, too many timid marketers rely on consumer research that tells them consumer awareness of protein in dairy is very low as a support for doing nothing.

Day one
Which is a pity, because we are at day one of a new market, and the successful companies will be the ones that realise that still-low consumer awareness is an opportunity to get established and start educating consumers and building their awareness. For dairy in particular that job is made easier by the fact that dairy has already established itself in most countries as the most credible product form for health benefits of all kinds.
In fact consumer knowledge is advancing rapidly, more rapidly than most companies realise, as higher protein/lower carb – and in particular lower sugar – diets quietly become as everyday as low fat used to be.
A few companies in leading markets are seizing the opportunity. In Finland Valio Dairy found consumers paying more attention to protein in their diet than had been thought – among more than 1,000 consumers 70% were either paying attention to the levels of protein in their diet or wanted to get more protein into their diet.

Growing interest
Before this survey was carried out, Valio was already aware that protein was a nutrient of growing interest to Finnish consumers. But it was nonetheless surprised at the extent of this interest. “I thought: ‘I can’t believe this, it cannot be true’,” said Taru Pilvi, who is vice president, Blue Ocean, at Valio and manages the PROfeel brand.
In response Valio developed and launched PROfeel, a high-protein dairy range designed to appeal not so much to committed athletes and body-builders – as is the case with many other protein products – but to the wider population.
“We have found there is a big need for products like this,” Pilvi says. “We have seen people’s consumption patterns shift towards products like quark and cottage cheese, which contain high amounts of protein naturally. But natural quark and cottage cheese get kind of boring and don’t taste too good. So there is a need, which has not been fulfilled. This is something consumers in Finland are really missing.”
Many companies are attempting to jump on the Greek yogurt bandwagon – and most will fail. Those that have the best chance of succeeding in the long run will be those that, as Valio Dairy has done, find other ways of making dairy a credible source of protein – such as using other types of high-protein dairy in their products, such as quark.

Tipping point
But although we are at a tipping point, it’s not going to be a development of explosive growth – which is what shareholders are always hoping for. Rather it will be slow steady progress, with the growth curve each year getting a little steeper. It will be 20 years before protein is as strongly associated with dairy as calcium is today. The Greek experience should only be taken as a guide in that it reminds us that creating delicious products is key to success (along with some luck).
And that’s why a long-term view of strategy is key to success. As many companies have already found to their cost, creating success with protein will not come quickly.
Recent years have seen an increasingly intense competition between dairy protein and various vegetable proteins, led by soy, for pre-eminence in this new market. So far, dairy has been bedevilled by volatile pricing and high cost. Vegetable protein has sold itself on lower cost – but on the other hand vegetable proteins have taste issues.
Dairy protein is about to get a huge advantage in this battle. This comes from two things:
• a change in the scientific test methods for protein have showed that dairy protein is much better absorbed by the human body than vegetable protein, giving dairy a big marketing advantage
• major dairy companies, such as Arla, are introducing new forms of protein which are clinically proven to be rapidly absorbed by the human body, thus making them even more effective.
Tipping points are often subtle things and this is no exception. The trend will continue to evolve slowly but this is the time to look closely at the role of protein in your product portfolio.

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