Clean Labels: The New Wave Sweeping the Fermented Milks Industry

Functional ingredients from naturally occurring food biopolymers are a trend catching up amongst food and beverage developers. This is driven by the demand of consumers for clean label ingredient listings on products. The clean label trend is extending into the yogurt market (acid gel) with consumers demanding hydrocolloids, stabilizers or thickeners are purged from ingredient listings. Substituting hydrocolloids in food systems especially yogurts could mean compromising on rheological properties and water holding capacities. However, structure functionality relationship of naturally occurring biopolymer caseins in milk can be exploited to overcome this foreseen loss of product characteristics. The following review is an attempt to delineate clean label solutions for the manufacture of acid milk gels.