PROVO — First came Go-Gurt — those squeezable plastic tubes of yogurt packed in the lunch boxes of American's schoolchildren. Now comes a new companion product — carbonated yogurt — developed at Brigham Young University.
Fizzix, as it's being marketed, is now on the shelves of grocery stores nationwide, 15 months after BYU licensed "sparkling yogurt" to the Yoplait Division of General Mills. Yoplait initially is targeting its bubbly product at "Tweens" — children 8 to 12, who eat less yogurt than younger kids and adults.
BYU food science professor Lynn Ogden came up with the idea 24 years ago after making homemade root beer.
"It was kind of a lark," Ogden said. "I'm a dairy guy and I was making a batch of yogurt one time and I thought, 'Why not drop in a bag of dry ice?' The result was delightful."
Yoplait is using Fizzix to bridge a gap in the yogurt market. "Tweens," children 8 to 12, eat less yogurt than younger kids and adults.
"I think it makes yogurt taste fresher, more pleasing, more refreshing," Ogden said. "It's not the high level of carbonation in soda that's so powerful. It's just a little tingle on the tongue."
The journey from idea to national product wasn't as easy as the discovery. Ogden began trying to develop fizzy
yogurt a dozen years ago at the urging of his wife, Laurel, and sold "Sparkling Yogurt" at the BYU Creamery in 1995 and '96, when the packaging only maintained the carbonation for a week.
BYU's technology transfer office, which works to sell technology developed at the university to corporations, believed strongly in Ogden's idea and paid to patent carbonation of "semi-solid spoonable foods, such as yogurt, custard, pudding, gelatin and ice cream" in 29 countries.
"We invested more in this project than in any other project at BYU," said Lynn Astle, former director of the technology transfer office. "I told my boss at the time, 'I'll either be infamous or famous for spending so much money on this.'"
General Mills turned down BYU's advances 10 years ago and again more than two years ago. European companies paid for expensive market research studies that proved the viability of the product — Astle said 80 percent of people like the fizzy yogurt while 20 percent don't — but no company wanted to be first to license it.
Finally, General Mills dropped its policy against licensing products developed outside the company and decided to create the brand Fizzix to complement Go-Gurt.
Astle and his replacement, Mike Alder, finalized the license in June 2006. Alder said the timing is good for BYU, because a university patent for a leukemia drug recently expired.
"BYU has annual income in the range of $2 million for inventions created on campus," Alder said. "Forty-five percent of that is shared with the inventor, who has the option to assign their portion back to their research with a dollar-for-dollar match from the university, so 90 percent can go back into research."
Ogden said it will take a while for the licensing fees and royalties to pay back the investment BYU made in patents.
BYU developed a cup package for sparkling yogurt, but Yoplait, which launched Go-Gurt eight years ago, decided to put it in a tube. Fizzix requires a special high-barrier film that keeps the carbon dioxide inside.
Ogden and Astle said carbonating yogurt doesn't detract from its nutritional value. It adds only one chemical, carbon dioxide, and the problems attributed to carbonated soda pop come from the high sugar content.
"Carbonation has sold an awful lot of pop," said Astle, who has a Ph.D. in biochemistry. "We're using carbonation to sell something healthy."
Yoplait's marketing campaign is clearly aimed at tweens, with a Web site, www.newfizzix.com, that sports a burp organ, and six flavors with hip names — Wild Cherry Zing, Triple Berry Fusion, Blue Raspberry Rage, Strawberry Lemonade Jolt, Fruit Punch Charge and Strawberry Watermelon Rush.
Astle said the product has even more potential if marketed to adults.
"I predict they will eventually put it in a cup and market it to adults because it really does enhance the flavor."
E-mail: twalch@desnews.com