Chr. Hansen is launching a phage robust adjunct culture that increases the fat perception of fresh dairy products and maintains good flavour through shelf life: eXact NG Flavor+.

The new culture, which is a blend of lactobacillus species, shows an ability to improve the flavour profile during storage of fresh dairy products. While most fresh dairy products lose their fresh and indulgent flavour during the first two to three weeks of storage, products fermented with eXact NG Flavor+ experience an improved flavour that is maintained for longer by the diacetyl production during chill storage, which gives increased shelf life with high quality.

"When we tested fermented milks produced with eXact NG Flavor+ in a sensory panel, the product came out with an improved fat perception in head to head comparison made without the new culture. Samples with 1.5 per cent fat were perceived to contain 2.5 per cent fat – a 67 per cent increase in fat perception," says Lasse Vigel Joergensen, global marketing manager, Chr. Hansen.

The culture is designed to be added on top of the normal starter culture and has no effect on the acidification speed of the fermentation or the post acidification. As a result, the texture of the product is not influenced.