The supplier of Meg-3 has already paired up with Danone on two other yoghurt products. Yoghurt drinks were recently identified as the fastest growing food product in the world by Euromonitor, which also estimated the entire functional dairy category to increase by 37 percent in the US up to 2010.
However, this product agreement is geared specifically towards children as it involves the Danino brand of drinkable yogurts, with DHA for development.
DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) is derived from marine sources such as oily fish, but can also be derived from microalgae. It has been linked in studies to the normal cognitive development.
The Danino brand in Canada will now feature Meg-3 DHA in both traditional and drinkable yogurts.
"Now kids have two delicious ways to contribute to their daily requirement of both dairy and DHA to help them reach there full potential," said Calvin Hwang, director of marketing with Danone Canada.
The partnership between ONC and Danone itself represent the marriage of two extremely competitive categories: omega-3 ingredients and functional dairy.
The market value for omega-3 enriched foods in the United States grew from approximately $100m to more than $2bn in four years, according to market researcher Packaged Facts, who reported there is still room for significant growth in the category.
This is where companies like ONC step in make their ingredients available for more and more suitable for a varied range of applications in mainstream foods.
ONC claims to have found a technology that hides the taste of fish. The company's Power-loc double microencapsulation technology has allowed formulators to use ONC's branded Meg-3 in products such as juices.
Meanwhile, Danone has been seeing runaway success with its functional probiotic yoghurts since their launch in the US.
The company is attributed with introducing the concept of probiotics to North America and normalizing it for consumers through their advertising campaigns.
Since Activia yogurt's launch in January 2006, it has surpassed the $100m mark in US retail grocery sales. Based on this success, the dairy giant recently launched three new probiotic-delivering products for the US market: Activia Light nonfat yogurt, DanActive dairy drink and Danimals with Lactobacillus GG( LGG).
