Arla joins in on the low carb diet craze

Arla Foods has teamed up with one of the world's leading diets to fight festive flab in the New Year.

Arla will be launching the country's first low carbohydrate milk and yogurt products, endorsed by the US company Atkins, and has signed an exclusive two year licence for Atkins branded dairy products in the UK.

The Atkins diet, named after its creator Dr Robert Atkins, pioneered low carb dieting in the 1970's. Since then its popularity has rocketed and there are currently an estimated three million UK followers of the diet.

Many large food and drink companies now produce low-carb food ranges, but when it comes to dairy products only cheese and cream have had a seat at the feast until now.

Atkins dieters cut back significantly on carbohydrates to lose weight; then they gradually add back a variety of 'good' carbohydrates in order to achieve their goal weight.

Milk and yogurts were previously not allowed as part of the diet because they are high in carbohydrates due to their lactose content.

To get around this, Arla has developed a micro-filtration system that removes 50 per cent of the lactose without taking away any of milk's vitamins and minerals. The end result is a semi-skimmed milk with half the carbohydrates but all the taste of normal milk.

Arla has also developed a low carb yogurt by carefully formulating the yogurt and using real fruit ingredients. The yogurt will be available from major retailers in individual 100g pots and one litre bottles of milk will also be on sale later on in the month.

Arla Foods UK plc is home to some of the UK’s leading dairy brands including Cravendale, Lurpak and Anchor. Processing approximately two billion litres of milk a year Arla continues to be one of the UK’s leading dairy companies and a supplier of fresh liquid milk and cream to the top seven retailers.

Over 2,500 daily deliveries are made directly to stores nationwide and Arla brands can be found across the dairy category. As well as the leader of the butter, spreads and margarine sector, and a major supplier of other added value products including flavoured milk and cheese, Arla continues to build working relationships with Arla Foods Milk Partnership, a unique group of dairy farmers, which supplies around 90 per cent of Arla's total milk requirements.

Behind this leading business is a team of circa 2,800 people across the UK located at our dairies, distribution centres and head office.