6 Innovative Fruit, Veggie, and Dairy Products to Inspire You

Thank you Donna Berry and Caleb Wagner for your contributions!

Consumers are headed back to their roots and are searching for products with bold nutritional claims.

A basic nutrition rule for many consumers is, “eat your fruits and veggies.”  It’s no secret that Mother Nature has a knack for making some mighty nutritional snacks, but that doesn’t mean the dairy industry can’t improve upon the trend.

We’ve all heard of the “berries & cream” flavor combination, however, dairy is a versatile base. Because of this versatility, we are starting to see a lot more ingenuity in the fruit, veggie and dairy category.  “Today’s consumers are attracted to the simplicity of dairy foods,” says Donna Berry, dairy industry consultant and owner of Daily Dose of Dairy, Chicago. “With the addition of a few natural ingredients and some simple processing, milk is readily converted into numerous delicious and nutritious products. Dairy products are a very accommodating base to all types of flavorful and healthful ingredients, namely fruits, vegetable and whole grains, food groups consumers know they should be including more of in their diet. From sweet and savory to the familiar and the exotic, today’s adventurous consumers can be readily entertained with dairy. There’s something for everyone’s palate and appetite.”

While some of the following products don’t incorporate dairy now, they easily could.  Take a look to better understand some popular products in category, garner some insight from our formulation expert Caleb Wagner and get those innovative gears turning:

DayUp

PPH Maxpol Sp Z.O.O., Poland, was a SIAL Innovation 2016 finalist for DayUp, a five-variety shelf-stable, no-sugar-added dairy product line that combines fruit mousse, yogurt and cereals. The product is targeted to on-the-go adults and comes in a convenient pouch. DayUp Red is a blend of apple, strawberry, sweet cherry, natural yogurt, oat flakes and linseed. Dig this product? Some of our offerings on our Yogurt page may be helpful to you!

Thoughts from Caleb:

“The acidic nature of yogurt combined with the wide commercial availability of aseptically produced fruit preparations makes yogurt an easy media to incorporate fruit and vegetables in when considering product stability and flavor compatibility.  Furthermore, advancements in aseptic packaging make shelf-stable (IE: no refrigeration required) products such as this possible without the use of chemical preservatives.”

Jump Starter

JillyV’s Jump Starter is p
ackaged in clear plastic containers so consumers can see the layers of product. Jump Starter combines organic yogurt, oats, and chia, and is topped with fruit compote. Varieties include: Berries, Lemon, Raspberry, and Strawberry. The optional Jump Pack makes this product line different than similar grain-style yogurts. Sold separately, Jump Packs include toasted almonds, pecans, hemp hearts and ground flax and can be added to Jump Starter for an extra nutrition boost. Dig this product? Some of our offerings on our Yogurt page may be helpful to you!

Thoughts from Caleb:

“The ‘Jump Packs’ are a novel way to incorporate those healthful ingredients for your average consumer without compromising the safety and quality of the base yogurt.  Flax in particular can be a microbial hazard when left in a wet environment too long (a food safety concern).  As far as quality goes, adding almonds and pecans would be difficult, since much of the texture we associate with those items would be lost over the product shelf-life (they would become mushy in the yogurt.)”

SmashPack Protein

SmashPack Protein is a new all-natural, high-protein and real fruit nutritional snack.  These spouted squeeze packs are for athletes and anyone on-the-go looking for a quick, healthy snack/meal replacement made from real food.  Each pouch is packed with 14g of high-quality whey protein, one serving of real fruit, 5g of healthy fats and is only 180 calories.  The line of protein packs come in three flavors, each with a short list of recognizable ingredients.

Mixed Berry is made with blackberries, blueberries, raspberries and strawberries.  Orange Peach contains bananas, oranges and peaches.  Tropical Fruit blends bananas, mangoes and pineapples with real coconut cream.  SmashPack Protein is shelf-stable, free of soy, gluten, and artificial ingredients, and naturally sweetened by the fruit it holds. Dig this product? Some of our offerings on our distribution/dairy ingredients page may be helpful to you!

Thoughts from Caleb:

The novelty of this product comes from advancements in whey protein processing. Whey is an economical and extremely nutritious protein source that comes wholly from what would otherwise be a wasted bi-product in cheese manufacturing.  Unfortunately, whey proteins normally don’t behave properly in acidic media (they are unstable, and can generally leave a product that is gritty and bitter in flavor).

Furthermore, heating whey to a certain temperature during production of a product like this can lead to gelation of the proteins.  Modern whey protein isolates (WPI’s) are now commercially available that have been processed specially to improve their performance in both hurdles mentioned above. Additionally, different pectin choices are now available beyond what consumers find in their mother’s cupboard for home-made jelly making (depending on the fiber portion being used, a stabilizing effect on milk proteins can be observed).

Again, aseptic packaging has made products like this that don’t require refrigeration possible; the logistical ease in distributing a product at ambient temperature instead of refrigerated cannot be understated.

Ninja Power Muffin

Garden Lites tout “food made with veggies as the first ingredient.” Marketed first to children by capitalizing on pop culture characters and then to parents with zucchini being listed as the first ingredient, these nutritionally packed muffins boast 80 calories per muffin and only 6g of sugar. These treats are flavored for indulgence while formulated for complete nutrition using such ingredients as brown rice flour, egg whites and spinach. Though they exclude dairy, an addition of whey protein or other milk proteins could boost the 2g of protein to something more substantial. Dig this product? Check out our Bakery White Paper for more neat ideas!

Thoughts from Caleb:

When adding protein to baked goods, formulators generally remove wheat flour, which is actually a complex and unique ingredient.  Adding extra foreign proteins disrupts a fairly complex chemistry that the wheat flour gives us as-is.  Thus, adding high amounts of protein for the purposes of fortification is actually quite difficult at any level other than in your own kitchen where consistency and shelf-life aren’t important factors.

In order to match what flour does in a bakery application, formulators generally have to use a variety of protein sources to cover a plethora of bases. In general, combinations of several proteins need be expertly selected based off of a number of criteria in order to get the proper texture, flavor and economy that we would traditionally expect from a given baked good.  Even to that end, every application is going to be different, so there is no “one-size” fits all when it comes to adding proteins to baked goods; this is actually applicable to working in bakery in general, in that every project and item requires a greater amount of care and detail than other kinds of goods do.

Muy Cheesy Quesadillas

KidFresh is known for sneaking vegetables into kid favorites to help meet the daily serving recommendation. Their Muy Cheesy Quesadilla delivers a secret serving of blended carrots within the cheese filling.  This subtle inclusion boosts this kid friendly product to contain 20% of the daily recommended Vitamin A intake. Want to get innovative with the torilla? Check out our Bakigen & Keystone products, we’re always up for customizing.

Thoughts from Caleb:

“Carrots are an easy inclusion in a lot of things due to their neutral, sweet flavor profile.  This addition could be made with shredded, blended or powdered carrots.  Freezing alleviates a lot of concerns associated with product quality degradation, moisture migration, and spoilage that might occur with the addition of a whole food like carrots.”