Yoghurt shots enter weight management arena

Made by leading Portuguese dairy manufacturer Lactogal, the new entrant is called Adagio Versus and is an imaginative extension of the existing Adagio functional food brand.

The company already markets two other shot-sized drinking yoghurts: prebiotic Adagion Simbiotico and cholesterol-lowering AdagioCol and probiotic.

The shot-size was initially a hit for probiotic yoghurt drinks, thought to be due to the convenience they offer consumers. The first 100ml bottle was pioneered by Yakult in Japan more than a decade ago, and emulated around the world by major players like Nestle and Danone.

In 2004 probiotic 'little bottles' had a retail sales value of £28 million - up 52 percent on the previous year - according to Euromonitor International.

The format has also been adopted as a vehicle for other functional ingredients, such as Benecol's cholesterol-lowering plant stanols.

Finnish dairy Valio also launched a fermented milk containing bioactive peptides, B vitamins and seaweed-derived calcium called Evolus, which is claimed to reduce blood pressure.

It makes sense that manufactures are seeking to extend this success into new areas. And as the food industry has been at great pains to contribute - and to be seen to be contributing - to tackling the current obesity crisis in the West, weight management is an obvious option.

Euopean obesity statistics vary wildly from country to country, but data from the International Obesity Taskforce shows that in some of the worst affected countries such as UK, Germany and Czech Republic, more than 20 per cent of adults have a body mass index over 30.

In the past few years diet products have moved beyond being merely less bad for you (lower calorie, lower fat, lower sugar), to positively good.

Adagio Versus contains DSN's satiety ingredient Fabuless, a novel emulsion of oat and palm oils. The microstructure of Fabuless means that palm oil droplets arrive undigested in the small intestine, prompting an 'appetite satisfied' signal to be sent to the brain. According to Fabuless product manager David Jobse, an Adagio yoghurt can help consumers to manage their calorie intake for up to eight hours.

DSM licenses the rights to market Fabuless as a weight management ingredient for dairy products from Swedish developer Lipid Technologies Provider (LTP). Under LPT, it is also known as Olibra, and previously as Reducal.

Fabuless' first use in a dairy product in Europe was announced last July, when Italian firm Latteria Merano introduced its Action Calorie-Control drinking yoghurt in local supermarkets, followed by a nationwide launch in the autumn.

In the US GNC has exclusive rights to use the ingredient in supplements and has launched Olibra as a major extension of its Total Lean weight management brand. Called Total Lean-Reduce, the single 7.5g dose can be added to normal food eaten at mealtimes.