Would You Drink Fizzy Milk?

Fizzy milk sounds like what you find in your fridge after a weekend away, but it’s something you might be finding in the chiller cabinet at your local supermarket pretty soon.

Arla, a European dairy cooperative, has been developing fizzy milk in an effort to encourage young people to consume more dairy.

The ‘sparkling fruit and milk’ drink is meant to appeal to teenagers and others who feel that plain old semi-skimmed just isn’t cool enough for them any more.

Made by mixing milk with fruit juice and carbonating it, it’s meant to be rolled out in the UK, Singapore and the UAE to assess the reaction to the product before hitting the rest of the world.

The milk drink will be made of milk and fruit juice, then carbonated

Arla is hoping to fix a generational lack of interest in milk. Young people are consuming less dairy by not eating breakfast at home, choosing plant milks or by becoming vegan or vegetarian.

The drink is likely to be pink and will be made from a ‘type of whey with no fat’. Mmmmm, yum.

The fizzy concoction was created by the so-called ‘terrible twins of innovation’ at Arla – German biochemist Sven Thormahlen, 60, and Matt Walker, 39, from Harrogate, who invented the baked bean Snap pot.

Developer Anne Evers Nikolajsen said about the drink: ‘It contains a certain level of dairy protein and amino acids, but won’t curdle when mixed with the fruit juice that gives it its pink colour; it is then carbonated. You could use it in a cocktail in the evening.’

Arla wants to boost milk sales by 2020 – here’s hoping they have better luck than Tango, who launched their ‘Strange Soda’, a fizzy milk, water and fruit juice mix, in 2004 in the UK and axed it after less than a year.

In 2009, Coca-Cola launched carbonated milk drink Vio in the US, which went on to be launched in India last year.

A spokesperson for Arla Foods said:

‘We are continually investing in new products to meet changing consumer tastes and preferences.

‘Fizzy milk is among the many products currently in development at our state-of-the-art Global Innovation Centre in Aarhus in Denmark, which sees chefs, scientists, consumers and customers all come together to identify and shape the trends, technologies and products that will impact on the global dairy industry in the years to come.

‘Like all products in development, we can’t say if or when the product will come to market.’

Craving dairy? Here’s our guide to Polish dairy products!

About the author

Alice Johnston

Food Editor

Alice is always planning her next meal. She studied English at the University of Bristol before getting her Master’s in newspaper journalism from City University London. She worked on Femail at Mail Online for 18 months writing about lifestyle and food and has also worked at Metro.co.uk, The Guardian, Mumsnet and The Sun. After starting at Culture Trip as a Social Content Producer writing travel and lifestyle stories, she was promoted to the role of Food Editor and now specialises in culinary culture, trends and social issues around food. When she’s not writing, eating or travelling, she can be found cooking overly elaborate dinners, reading cookbooks in bed or playing with her cat, Orlando. Her favourite foods include fishfinger sandwiches, burnt caramel panna cotta, Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and oysters.