Yofix Probiotics, the Israeli start-up which last week was awarded €100,000 through PepsiCo’s European Nutrition Greenhouse, has launched its first dairy-free yogurt line with probiotic cultures.
The products, which are sold under the Only brand in Israel, are based on a clean-label formula made from just a few natural ingredients, including: grains, seeds, fruit and live cultures.
With the growth of vegan and flexitarian diets, Yofix said it aims to offer a “new generation yogurt alternative that hits all the marks for flavour, texture, nutrition, and eco-friendliness”. The range has no added sugars, flavours, colours or preservatives.
Behind Yofix is Ronen Lavee, an agricultural mechanical engineer with lactose intolerance. Lavee returned to Israel after eight years in Asia and could not find a dairy-free yogurt alternative with good flavour and texture.
He experimented with more than 100 fermented formulas based on natural ingredients until he found the ‘bio 5 formula’ which uses no added sugars, preservatives or colours, yet is said to have the texture and flavour of yogurt.
Lavee said: “I did not want to compromise on taste or nutrition in the product, nor compromise on the natural aspect. The ingredients used in our products are simply grains, seeds, fruit and live cultures.”
Yofix CEO Steve Grun said: “Yofix will be launched globally. And, we will be developing new plant-based dairy substitutes for milk, yogurt drinks, cream cheese, coffee creamers and even ice cream. Our proprietary manufacturing technology and formulations are highly flexible and require minimum investment for versatility.”
Yofix launched the Only line of plant-based yogurts with Strauss Dairies in Israel, with three flavours available.
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