Arla Foods has launched a new range of fruit yogurts in Germany called Arla Bio Nur.
Bio Nur consists of simply 75% organic yogurt combined with 25% organic fruit. Danish-based Arla claimed it was “the first product of its kind for the company anywhere in the world”, and was inspired by the cooperative’s growing effort to create products that are free from added ingredients.
The dairy cooperative chose the name Bio Nur – ‘nur’ means ‘just’ in German – to reflect the stripped-back nature of the yogurts.
Christian Trgo, innovation director for Arla Germany, said: “At Arla, it is a first for us to launch a fruit yogurt made from just two ingredients. This gives consumers an opportunity to reduce sugar consumption and still enjoy something new. We are committed to offering natural products that provide an alternative without added sugar and additives.
“To make sure our products are the best quality, it is in Arla’s ethos that we never add any ingredients that aren’t necessary. However, we wanted to take this even further by creating a new yogurt that contains only natural ingredients. Yet with simplicity comes complexity. We had a very short space of time to bring the concept to reality and overcome some very big challenges.”
Launching across Europe throughout 2019
Arla claimed that “an increasing number of consumers” were beginning to recognise the sugar content of dairy products, and yogurts in particular. The average fruit yogurt in Germany contains around 14g of added sugar, and consumers in markets across Europe are beginning to question the amount of ‘hidden sugar’ in seemingly healthy products.
Last week, a report in the British Medical Journal found that a majority of yogurts sold in the UK were “well above” recommended sugar levels, with only natural and Greek yogurts generally falling below the advised 5g of sugar per 100g recommended by EU regulations.
This is in spite of consumers perceiving fruit yogurt to be a ‘healthier’ category.
Arla Bio Nur contains between 6.8g and 7.7g of sugar, depending on the fruit variant, and does not contain any added sugars.
Lukas Leutgoeb, from Arla’s research and development department, continued: “When we began speaking to fruit prep suppliers, they told us it was impossible to create a product like this. Traditionally fruit and yogurt only would be a very sour combination so getting the right proportion, flavour and size of fruit was key if we could achieve a product that had no added sugar but still tasted great.”
The research and development team tested over 180 variations of fruit preparations before hitting the right variations. Increasing the proportion of fruit to a quarter of the overall product enabled the company to ensure the yogurt tastes as good as it would with other added ingredients.
Arla Bio Nur is available across Germany and comes in strawberry, tropical fruit and red fruit variants. Produced in Uphal, Germany, it will launch into other European market throughout 2019.
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