One that caught my eye was the new Savera Dairy brand from Arla Foods UK. This Indian dairy range is aimed at giving Indian consumers in the UK the chance to buy authentic fresh Indian dairy produce in mainstream supermarkets. The plan is to possibly roll it out in India as well in the future.
Nearly three years ago we featured Arun Prabhu on the cover of Dairy Innovation magazine. At the time Arun was Head of Future Creations at Arla Foods UK and ‘off the record’ he hinted at this new range, but said there was a lot of work to do.
Well that work has been done and the range is here. It is a great idea – and now it is an award winner.
There have been lots of functional dairy drinks and products that target child and female health – but not many that address male health. So it was good to see Immunele for Men from Wimm-Bill-Dann. As one judge said: it is not easy to make immunity or milk drinks masculine – but this feels like a good step in the right direction.
Butter is a category that has had a bad press in the past, so it is great to see new products coming on the scene. The winner in this category was a butter from FrieslandCampina – but it was the story behind its development that illustrated so well how our industry is prepared to meet challenges head on. In this case it was to produce a butter that did not spatter and burn when used for cooking. FrieslandCampina developed Botergoud roomboter voor Bakken en Braden – much to the delight of the journalist who issued the challenge.
School Milk is a particular passion of mine, and the latest initiative from the Danish Dairy Board caught my eye. The Board wanted to promote dialogue between school children the world over and thereby increase tolerance and mutual understanding between cultures. Its ‘Get twinned with another class from another country’ was the result. Not only were they promoting children’s physical well-being and health at school, they could be said to be aiding them on a mental and emotional level as well, helping them to understand and acknowledge the global community.
And then there was the Refuel with Chocolate Milk initiative from MilkPEP in the US. Despite scientific research that shows the value of chocolate milk after exercise, the flavoured milk has become something of a battleground in US schools after UK celebrity chef Jamie Oliver swept into the US in order to shake up school meals and proclaimed chocolate milk as a health risk for youngsters because it contained too much sugar. The dairy industry did not take this challenge lying down, and the Refuel with Chocolate Milk campaign gives the industry the opportunity to build a legacy product that extends milk’s brand and nutritional equity for years to come.
There are some great stories linked to many of the Award entries and you can read all about them in the Dairy Innovation Awards Showcase magazine – available soon. The Showcase will be distributed with the next issue of Dairy Innovation magazine and will be available as a digital edition.
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