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. “You’ve got apple turnover, you’ve got Boston creme pie, you’ve got white-chocolate-strawberry cheesecake—they’re 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 yogurt’s 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 yogurt’s 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. They’re 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 differences—usually 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.”