Chr. Hansen, a Danish food ingredients firm, has introduced Greek yogurt culture series, YoFlex and nu-trish SoGreek, designed to allow development of fortified as well as strained yogurt.
Available with Chr. Hansen's probiotic BB-12, the SoGreek cultures comprise yogurt cultures from Chr. Hansen and an authentic Greek culture from a strain collection from the Agricultural University of Athens.
Designed to work optimally in the predominant processes used for Greek style yogurt, SoGreek cultures help resolve issues such as powdery flavor or chalkiness in fortified yogurt.
Additionally, they also allow maintaining a low post acidification in the strained yogurt during production process, ensuring the required mild taste.
Chr. Hansen marketing manager Morten Boesen said that the university set out to find and understand the cultures used in authentic Greek/ Mediterranean artisanal dairy products.
"They visited small producers and families around the Aegean Sea to sample their homemade recipes from when food was made pure and simple."
"This work has led to the discovery of the culture used in SoGreek, which was isolated from an artisanal Greek yogurt from the island of Crete 20 years ago," Boesen added.
Chr. Hansen stated that the cultures are designed to provide Greek yogurt using either separation technology or milk powder fortification to reach the high protein level.
Image: SoGreek are designed to work optimally in the predominant processes used for Greek style yogurt Photo courtesy of Chr. Hansen A/S.
