Sunday 3 February 2013

Fro Yo Frozen Yogurt Could Lead To Successful Business Opportunities

I was visiting a newly opened branch of a fro yo frozen yogurt chain last week and looking around I realised that the owner of the franchise must be making a mint. The place was crowded with people from all walks of life, all enjoying the delicious taste of the froyo frozen yogurt favourites. This led to a discussion about the various different chains which sell frozen yogurt and which ones were the most popular and why.

Froyo franchises thrive in high-traffic retail markets with families, students and young professionals. People may be more aware of their diets these days, but they certainly have no less of a sweet tooth. Frozen yogurt, a hybrid between the traditional ice cream dessert and the healthier (and hipper) yogurt based products, is an innovative way for customers to “have their cake, and eat it too.”  Although the popularity of the frozen yogurt franchise industry suffered a decline in the late 1990’s, the category has been making a colossal comeback in the last decade, with a new generation of flavors, toppings, and store settings leading the charge. With this new wave of frozen yogurt franchises blossoming, new franchisees will find that this industry is nowhere near its freezing point.

Focusing on providing delicious yet diet-friendly treats to its health-conscious consumers, this new hybrid of frozen yogurt is tangier, tarter and lighter than original frozen yogurt products. Unlike older franchises whose frozen yogurt was intended to mimic ice cream products, these new franchises go beyond the typical ice creams flavors, offering creative inventions like cranberry-raspberry and green tea yogurts. Nowadays, customers aren’t just coming in for the frozen yogurt, but also for these franchises’ “chill” store settings. Trending away from the outdated ice-cream parlor environment, modern froyo stores include high-end furniture, Wi-Fi, flat-screen televisions, and live musical performances.

Different franchises sell different types of product;

Soft-Serve

Soft-serve yogurt is a favorite in market of froyo products. These treats are typically tarter and plainer than hand-scooped flavors, letting customers experiment with toppings without being overwhelmed by the sweetness of the yogurt. Soft-serve yogurt can either be charged by number of servings or by weight.

Hand-Scooped;     

Hand-scooped frozen yogurt, a healthier twist to the original ice cream parlor concept, presents an opportunity for franchises to get fully creative with their froyo flavors.

Cakes and Pies

If you can’t decide between cake and frozen yogurt opt for a franchise that serves frozen yogurt filled cakes and pies. These delectable desserts are a favorite during birthdays and holiday celebrations.

Smoothies

In response to the current health foods trend, some frozen yogurt franchises have decided to sell vitamin or protein enriched smoothies. These smoothies are typically made with the same soft-serve yogurt that is already sold in the store; they simply blend in fresh fruit and juice.

One of the most popular desserts in many households these days is the fro yo swirled frozen yogurt. This comes in a variety of flavours and is both light and creamy but low on calories.

There are Fewer Calories in Fat Free Frozen Yogurt than in Ice Cream

These days it seems that the world and its mother seem to be counting the calories in every single that is destined for their mouths and stomachs. This means that you will find people checking the calories of any foodstuff added to their trolleys and baskets and you will find the calories amounts listed in menus at restaurants and takeaways. I have seen women arguing about the calories in fat free frozen yogurt, as compared to ice cream and other desserts, as though their very lives depended on the outcome! There is no competition as there are fewer calories in frozen yogurt than in most ice creams.

The energy stored in food is measured in terms of calories. Technically, 1 calorie is the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water 1 degree centigrade. The calorie measure used commonly to discuss the energy content of food is actually a kilocalorie or 1000 real calories. This is the amount of energy required to raise 1 kilogram of water (about 2.2 pounds) 1 degree centigrade. Different foods contain different amounts of energy -- which is why a small piece of chocolate can have many more calories than a similarly sized piece of lettuce. However, since calories are a measure of energy, there cannot be, as some diet books claim, different types of calories. A fat calorie has the same amount of energy as a protein or carbohydrate calorie.

A person's caloric need is determined using a variety of mathematical equations. Age, height, current weight, and desired weight are taken into account. Diet is what you eat. Dieting usually refers to eating fewer calories to lose weight. The amount of calories in a diet refers to how much energy the diet can provide for the body. A well-balanced diet is one that delivers an adequate amount of calories while providing the maximum amount of nutrients. Naturally, different foods provide different amounts of calories. Some foods, such as ice-cream, have many calories; while others, like leafy vegetables, have few.

Healthy Alternative

In general, frozen yogurt can be viewed as a healthy alternative to ice cream — perhaps on par with frozen milk or some sorbets. The enzymatic benefits of yogurt can aid digestion, and some of the additional health benefits of yogurt remain in its sweetened and frozen form. It should not, however, be viewed as a “healthy” food, because it still contains relatively high levels of fat and might have extremely high amounts of sugar.

When it comes to calories frozen yogurt has the edge over other desserts but this is only true to the point that you need to eat the low fat frozen yogurt on its own, without the additional toppings which are so popular and so hard to resist. These are the things which can bump up the calories in frozen yogurt desserts to the extent that it can sometimes be better to have a small piece of your favourite dessert or ice cream.

Sales of Frozen Yogurt in UK Stores Have Increased in Recent Years

Desserts are one of the few things in life which most people cannot resist in some form or another. Even those who say no a few times always give in and accept a little bit. This is good news for businesses dealing with desserts and these days one of the most successful dessert markets is the frozen yogurt UK market. Frozen yogurt in UK has really caught on and there are now many frozen yogurt suppliers.

Frozen yogurt is a dessert that is similar to ice cream but is made with yogurt rather than cream. It tends to be healthier than ice cream; so many people choose it as an alternative. Consumers should realize, however, that although it is richer in many minerals and nutrients than ice cream is, frozen yogurt is not as healthy as regular yogurt. Some types of frozen yogurt might also include significant amounts of sugar, making them not much healthier than ice cream and possibly even higher in calories than some varieties of ice cream. 1980 marked the beginning of the first wave of success in the frozen yogurt franchise industry. For the next decade, frozen yogurt franchises sprung up in every street corner and mall plaza, dominating the industry for frozen desserts.

Benefits of yogurt and frozen yogurt

There are several benefits that yogurt has and other dairy products don't have. Perhaps most importantly, yogurt contains enzymes that assist in breaking down dairy, allowing many people who are lactose intolerant to ingest yogurt — including the frozen kind — with few or no ill effects. Yogurt also tends to contain high levels of protein and many important minerals. Live and active culture yogurt us an excellent source of calcium. Years of studies have confirmed the benefits of yogurt in lactose (milk sugar) intolerance, the digestion of milk proteins, and gastro-intestinal infections.

Yogurt is not new to the food world. People in many parts of the world have been making yogurt for at least 4,000 years. It is valued as a health food because of the benefits of live active cultures. Just because its yogurt doesn't mean it's healthy. It's true that frozen yogurt often has less fat than ice cream (it's made with milk and no cream), but it can have more sugar. Check the nutrition information to see what you're really getting.

Not all products termed "frozen yogurt" actually contain live and active cultures. The words "Live Active Culture" refer to the living organism Streptococcus, Thermophilus, and Lactobacillus bulgaricus which convert pasteurized milk to yogurt fermentation. Some so-called "frozen yogurts" use heat-treated yogurt which kills the live and active cultures, or they may simply add in cultures to the mix along with acidifiers, and skip the fermentation step all together. To make sure that a frozen yogurt contains yogurt produced by traditional fermentation and has a significant amount of live and active cultures, always check the packaging. This should be clearly marked and all the relevant information provided by frozen yogurt suppliers UK companies use.