Chr. Hansen Launches Cultures to Boost Flavor in Fresh Dairy

12 Mar 2015 --- In response to the growing consumer demand for tasty dairy products with natural ingredients and improved flavor, Chr. Hansen is now launching a phage robust adjunct culture that increases the fat perception of fresh dairy products and maintains good flavor through shelf life: eXact NG Flavor+.

The new culture, which is a blend of Lactobacillus species, shows an ability to improve the flavor profile during storage of fresh dairy products. While most fresh dairy products lose their delicious, fresh and indulgent flavor during the first 2-3 weeks of storage, products fermented with eXact NG Flavor+ experience an improved flavor that is maintained for longer by the diacetyl production during chill storage, which gives increased shelf life with high quality.

“The dairy industry is in transition. Consolidation of production sites and maximizing the use of production capacity is a key competitive advanced in the European and North American market,” Lasse Vigel Joergensen, Global Marketing Manager – Fresh Dairy at Chr. Hansen told FoodIngredientsFirst. “This leads to increased transportation to reach the consumers and can result in blowing of the retail package for traditional dairy products. This culture gives you flavor improvement throughout shelf life without the risk of blowing of the package as eXact NG Flavor+ do not produce any CO2 but flavor.”

“When we tested fermented milks produced with eXact NG Flavor+ in a sensory panel, the product came out with an improved fat perception in head-to-head comparison made without the new culture. Samples with 1.5 % fat were perceived to contain 2.5 % fat – a 67 % increase in fat perception,” elaborates Joergensen.

The culture is designed to be added on top of the normal starter culture and has no effect on the acidification speed of the fermentation or the post acidification. As a result, the texture of the product is not influenced.

“On the contrary, we often see a glossy or more shiny look of the fresh dairy product when produced with eXact NG Flavor+,” underlines Joergensen.

The perfect answerNG Flavor+ is the perfect answer to a broad spectrum of fresh dairy products to fit with trends among consumers:
• Healthy indulgence: low fat, high protein, reduced sugar
• Delicious taste: taste is king – do not compromise
• All natural: Short ingredient list (milk, cultures), no additives

“One of the key trends in the food and dairy industry is ‘Healthy indulge.’ Here the message is go-ahead and enjoy yourself with our healthy product. For these dairy products ‘taste is king’ with eXact NG Flavor+ you can increase the fat perception of the product without increase the fat content,” says Joergensen.

Joergensen believes that the culture has other application possible areas too. “Apart from sour cream, quark, fromage frais and cream cheese, we also believe it could play a role in butter and tvorog production in some markets due to the broad temperature range where the culture is able to produce flavor,” he concludes.

by Robin Wyers