The company claims its ‘Sweet as you like’ dairy dessert ingredient can customise foods to one of four styles, as part of ongoing research across Western Europe into consumer habits.
In an attempt to tap into demand for convenience and ‘home-made’ quality goods, the product allows consumers to produce dairy desserts in the form of sauces, panna cotta, whipped toppings or ice cream-like products, says Danisco.
“The texture opportunities of ‘Sweet as you like’ include liquid, creamy and gelled, aerated and aerated and frozen,” claim the company.
Linda Friis, a senior applications specialist for Danisco told DairyReporter.com that ‘Sweet as you like’ offered more flexibility to manufacturers of dairy desserts and was based on the company’s Grinsted 4000 range of goods.
“The ingredients at the heart of the new dessert come from the Creamline range,” she stated. “Manufacturers fill the liquid desserts into containers and the desserts remain stable throughout their shelf life.”
Commercial plan
Friis said that a launch date for commercialisation of the ingredient had yet to be set due to ongoing product testing, but that the development reflected a further extension of its consumer driven innovation focus.
Danisco suggested that a number of Western dairy groups were already involved in testing certain applications for dairy-based desserts based on the ingredient.
According to Friis, the group went straight to the source and looked at the needs of shoppers in terms of their pudding preference.
She added that after shoppers had been interviewed, as well as being escorted around grocery stores, the research suggested home made convenience was of particular interest.
“It was important that the food should not just be heated and then served [for example],” said Friis. “A little effort should be put in to it, so that [the dessert] could pass on as being home made.”
Danisco claims that although ‘Sweet as you like’ is this first product of its kind that has been launched for use with dessert goods, a range of similar concepts are already available to manufacturers.
The ranges, which include ‘Freeze as you like’, ‘Cook as you like’ and ‘Bake as you like’, are expected to be followed by additional variations, according to the company.
In terms of cost for manufacturers to adopt the dessert ingredient, Friis said that the current financial outlay remained confidential. However, she claimed that the ingredient could be produced on most existing equipment, eliminating the need for added investment.