YoCream has previously used natural fermentation to produce frozen yoghurts with probiotic bacteria, but the arrangement with Danisco is the first time it has used a strain with thorough clinical backing.
The product, called High Culture Frozen Yoghurt, is said to be a sweet, creamy yoghurt that contains a billion L. acidophilus bacteria per serving, as a high count is maintained throughout the product’s shelf-life.
Studies in which L. acidophilus has been investigated have looked at digestive health, improvements to intestinal microbial balance, aiding digestion of dairy products, and inhibiting harmful bacteria.
“Howaru Dophilus is the world’s best documented Lactobacillus acidophilus and the only L. acidophilus with its genome fully sequenced,” said Peggy Steele, Danisco’s global business director.
“Studies began on this strain in the early 1970s, so there are many years of proven safety and efficacy.”
Probiotic popularity
Probiotic products have increased in popularity in the US in recent years. In 2008, Datamonitor valued the US market for probiotics at $1,526.7m, up from $952.1m in 2003.
After analysing part of a geographical break down from a recent report on the global probiotics market, the market researcher said recently that US consumers seem to be becoming increasingly accepting of the concept of ‘friendly’ bacteria as awareness increases.
Dairy products have been well accepted as carriers for probiotic bacteria, but technical strides have been made to take them beyond chilled yoghurts and milks in which they first gained prominence.
As well as frozen products such as YoCream’s yogurt, other companies have investigated the use of probiotics in products like cheese, chocolate, chewy confectionery.
Concept
Danisco has previously communicated the potential to use its Howary bacteria in frozen yogurts when it announced a concept containing its Rhamnosus strain, researched for its effect in keeping the immune system healthy.
The product concept it aired last year also used Litesse, its low calorie prebiotic sweetener; and its Cremodan SE80 stabiliser.