Yili adds cereal and fruit to yogurt

With ambient yogurt processing, particle heating and a new Tetra Top system, Tetra Pak has allowed Yili, a leading Chinese dairy manufacturer, to produce the world’s first ambient drinking yogurt with large fruit and cereal pieces.

Yili launched the breakthrough product in Tetra Top® 200ml with large re-sealable screw caps. It gained immediate popularity, strengthening the leadership position of the company in the fast-growing ambient yogurt category.

Charles Brand, Executive VP, Product Management and Commercial Operations at Tetra Pak said, “We are pleased to be able to support our customer deliver a premium product in a growing category. This has been made possible by our expertise in the entire processing and packaging process: our ambient yogurt processing capability, the know-how of heating large food particles, and our ability to customise the packaging system.

“The new Tetra Pak® TT/3 AD filling system has been designed to allow the particles to pass through seamlessly, and the new Tetra Top package uses a large re-sealable opening that makes it easy for consumers to drink the yogurt with large fruit pieces.”

Including large fruit pieces within an ambient beverage product is a challenging process. The heating of the product must be done carefully to ensure that the fruit pieces are not damaged or broken-down during the process, and the filling and packaging need to ensure even distribution of the fruit particles, keeping the quality and integrity of the final product.

The global market for ambient drinking yogurt is around 12.5 billion packages today, with quick expansion from China to South East Asia and the Middle East. The addition of large fruit pieces and cereal grains will further increase consumer interest with more premium products.