New dairy products highlight ANUGA World Food Market - New Product Review

Dairy Foods,  Dec, 1989  by Marty Friedman

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New Dairy Products Highlight ANUGA World Food Market

If you think the Food Marketing Institute's annual convention is big, imagine an exhibition that's more than five times larger! Every two years, ANUGA, the World Food Market, is held in Cologne, Germany.

This year's event, which took place October 14th to 19th, attracted 6,000 exhibiting companies from 89 countries to Koln Messe's exhibition hall, which boasts 19 exhibit floors.

Most excitingly for dairy industry attendees, dairy products had a hall all to themselves, called Milchstrasse (Milk Street). Out of the 6,000 or so exhibitors from 89 countries, 328 displays from 29 countries presented milk products of all types, including fresh milk, butter cheese, yogurt, cream and sour milk products.

Virtually every display stand shouted the German word "Neu!," meaning new products were being offered.

Disney goes abroad

Of particular interest were cartoon character-endorsed items aimed at children. A company called J. Bauer KG is marketing Disney Duck Tales Kinder Yogurt in strawberry, raspberry and banana-peach. The packages are adorned with all the members of the Donald Duck family. A popular German television puppet character, Hallo Spencer, graces a variety of quarks, yogurt and puddings from Tiffany; while dairy giant Ehrmann's newest introduction was Monster Backe Fruit-Menu, which is a line of apricot, banana and strawberry milk-based desserts featuring friendly monster characters. Perhaps the most unusual, kid-appeal packaging came from the British firm, Unigate. The company is marketing Fiendish Feet, a milk pudding in single-serve cups that have molded feet pedestals.

Another popular buzzword at ANUGA was "Leicht," meaning "Light" (usually less fat, calories or cholesterol). Tiffany's line, called Leb Leicht (Live Light) features a variety of Diat (Diet) yogurt, quark, rice pudding desserts and thick creams. Lower fat spreads included Oldenberger's Leichte Linie Die Gute Halbe (The Good Half), and Meggle's Butterfly, both with 50 percent less fat than butter. A line of cheese spreads from Grunland Kase, called Fit and Gut, contains only 8 percent fat.

An extensive line of yogurts always can be found in German food stores. New from Nestle was Lunebest Bifighurt (to enhance digestibility) and Vanilla Vollkorn (a high fiber variety). Also new was Joghurt-Reis, a rice "pudding" yogurt in cherry, strawberry and peach flavors. Molkerei Strothman has a Bioghurt too, but also adds calcium to the product. Bauer has a rice yogurt in three fruit flavors plus a low-calorie version. Zott Yogurt with Fiber is enriched with oat flakes, wheat bran and linseed. An unusual fruit combination was Blood Orange & Pineapple. For linguists, the German word "ballast" usually denotes fiber.

Exotic cheeses revealed

Meanwhile, cheese lovers would describe ANUGA as an eating Eden. While the Swiss, Dutch and Danish exhibits were filled with samples (albeit very small) of Emmenthaler, gouda and havarti, the French and German cheesemakers revealed more exotic varieties.

CP Petri showed attractive smoked salmon and green pepper cream cheese spreads, plus rum-raisin and pineapple varieties for breakfast toast. Novo-Foods introduced Marika, described as double cream cheese with horseradish, topped with red paprika. Also from this company were Elftmix cheeses, chopped cheeses to be used in soups and salads. Natreen has added Gouda Toast Slices, Camembert and Herb Cheese Spread to its reduced fat line; while Karwendel is out with Exquisa Sport, a vitamin-enriched fresh cheese.

Flavored milk drinks also enjoy better sales in Europe than the United States. Frappe is an aseptically-packaged coffee shake from Nestle, which also markets Nesquik chocolate drink in boxes. Schwalbchen has a new Mango-flavored milk drink, which also contains the Biogarde digestion ingredient. Most dairies market fruit-flavored yogurt drinks, including Sylvester Stallone's favorite, "Yo," a product of Frischli.

In addition, imaginative packaging for table creamers was displayed. Few consumers would be embarrassed to grace their tables with Baren Marke's Kaffeesahne's mini-pitchers; Norheides' Coffee-Vit ready-to-pour beakers; or Frishli's Sahne Butler. The packages are clean, attractive and well-designed.

Any American visitor to German (or other European) supermarkets' dairy cases would be amazed at the variety of refrigerated desserts available to consumers. The success of Jell-O puddings would indicate great growth potential for this category over here. In addition to the many fresh rice puddings on display at ANUGA, we also noted such unusual items as Bremerland's semolina pudding with cherry and raspberry toppings, Nestle's new red-wine and white-wine mousses, "made with fresh Alpine cream," Tiffany's Ballerina Buttermilk fruit dessert, and Zott's Tiramisu, a dessert with double fresh cheese and liqueur-soaked sponge cake.

A group of other ANUGA newcomers of interest to dairy markets would include Meggle's Beurettes, herb butter in pre-formed swirls that will look beautiful as meat or vegetable garnishes; New Covent Garden's line of pint milk carton-packed, refrigerated soups (Vichyssoise, Carrot & Coriander, Chicken Lemon & Tarragon); Soyasun, a French line of refrigerated "low fat soya desserts with fruit;" Polenghi, from Italy, described as "milk in a tablet, gives energy to life," and Bongrain Germany's Menu Fromage, a line of cheese fritters (with onion or ham) designed for snacks or main courses.