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According to BENEO-Orafti the health aspects of new dairy drink products are more important than 'convenience' which used to be the main promotion driver.

Dairy drinks that promote health have been bucking the global trend in new product development decline over the past three years. Since dairy drink new product launches reached their peak in 2005 with 2,329 brought to market globally, the number launched has been dropping year on year. However, the number of dairy drinks created that promote health benefits has been on the increase.

BENEO-Orafti Marketing & Communication Manager Tim Van der Schraelen, explained further: “We have seen a growing emphasis on health in society as obesity becomes a global problem and although ‘convenience’ is still a big driver in the promotion of dairy drinks (34% of new products launched use it to sell the product), ‘health’ has overtaken it as the primary claim used to encourage sales (with 42% of producers using it to sell the product). With this in mind, we have seen a ten-fold increase in the number of dairy drink products brought to market that contain inulin and oligofructose over the last five years. From small beginnings back in 2002 when only 15 dairy drinks contained this active food ingredient, 2007 saw 164 products brought to market globally that contained inulin and oligofructose.”

With the largest proportion of dairy drink innovations being carried out in Western Europe and Asia, followed by North America, it is interesting to note that North America leads the field with dairy drinks that contain inulin and oligofructose (10% of dairy drinks on the market in North America contain this active food ingredient, as opposed to 7.4% in Western Europe and 4.8% in Asia).

With growing concerns over health issues and the increasing education of consumers on the subject of well-being, it is interesting to note that gut health is a significant driver used to position dairy drinks. With almost 17% of the products containing inulin and oligofructose launched over the last five years using ‘low fat’ as a driver for positioning and 13% using ‘gut health’, it is interesting to note that only 3% opted to use ‘low sugar’ as a key driver.