Flavored milks are unfermented milks mixed with sugar, a flavor giving ingredient or aroma and stabilizers. They answer the desire of consumers and especially children for a change and experience in flavor. Market research shows growth rates of 4% in Europe and 13% worldwide in the period from 2000 to 2002. Important flavors are chocolate, coffee, vanilla, strawberry, malt extract & chocolate and banana. Additional ingredients are thickeners to stabilize the casein and some ingredients and sometimes pH-stabilizing agents such as phosphate or sodium hydroxide. Flavored milks with a high percentage of fruit juice are stabilized with about 0.3% (w/w) high-methoxy pectin to avoid the flocculation of milk proteins. The pectin is directly interacting with the casein micelles and reintroduces a steric repulsion between the casein micelles. For the stabilization of flavored milk drinks of around normal pH 6.7 mostly -carrageenan is used as a thickening agent. It adsorbs to the surface of the casein micelles promoted by electrostatic interaction. The necessary stabilizing weak gelation, forming a three-dimensional network, occurs at relatively low -carrageenan concentrations of 0.01 to 0.05%. Cocoa particles of 10 to 30 m are entrapped in the network. Heat treatment (pasteurization, ultra-pasteurization or UHT) is followed by cooling and filling.
