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Is Yoplait yogurt or not? According to a lawsuit filed with the FDA it isn’t

By Linda Eckhardt on June 12, 2012

Greek Yogurt, home made

And that brings us to a persistent and prevailing problem with the processed foods industry. Just because a large manufacturer says a product is SOMETHING doesn’t necessarily mean it’s so. After all. What is yogurt? The real item is simply, According to Wikipedia, a dairy product produced by bacterial fermentation of milk. The bacteria used to make yogurt are known as “yogurt cultures”. Fermentation of lactose by these bacteria produces lactic acid, which acts on milk protein to give yogurt its texture and its characteristic tang.

Worldwide, cow’s milk is most commonly used to make yogurt, but milk from water buffalo, goats, ewes, mares, camels, and yaks is also used in various parts of the world.

Dairy yogurt is produced using a culture of Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus and Streptococcus salivarius subsp. thermophilus bacteria. In addition, other lactobacilli and bifidobacteria are also sometimes added during or after culturing yogurt.

The milk is first heated to about 80 °C (176 °F) to kill any undesirable bacteria and to denature the milk proteins so that they set together rather than form curds. The milk is then cooled to about 45 °C (112 °F). The bacteria culture is added, and the temperature is maintained for 4 to 7 hours to allow fermentation.

Yogurt is as old as the milking of milk animals where it was no doubt developed as a way to preserve milk, which was fragile, and would go bad quickly without the aid of refrigeration.

In today’s world, Greek yogurt is prized for its superior flavor, abundant probiotics, and addition to a healthy diet.

What differentiates Greek yogurt from others?

Greek yogurt contains more protein than regular yogurt. A cup of Greek yogurt has about two times more protein content than the other. While a cup of regular yogurt gives you around 10 protein grams, Greek yogurt gives you 20 protein grams.

Secondly, Greek yogurt has fewer carbohydrates. Hence, diet enthusiasts, and most especially diabetics, choose Greek since regular contains about 15 to 17 carbohydrate grams at an average, compared to Greek yogurt’s meager 9 grams per one cup serving. It has even been reported that some Greek yogurts are manufactured with less than 9 grams.

Thirdly, Greek yogurt is creamier and thicker. This improvement in texture usually induces purely positive responses from the consumers when the product reaches their taste buds.

What’s not to love?

It’s that simple. But when the Frankendairies get hold of this idea, what you get is quite a different being. Eeek.

And that brings us back to Yoplait brand, which is being sued. You really gotta read this. Its big ag all over.

A class action lawsuit filed in California claims that General Mills’ Yoplait-brand fat-free Greek yogurt is misbranded because it contains milk protein concentrate (MPC), which is not listed as a permitted yogurt ingredient under FDA regulation. To read the rest of the story, go here:

But if you’d like REAL Greek yogurt, why not simply make it yourself? Folks have been doing this for thousands of years.

Boy drinks home made Greek yogurt

But why despair? It’s quite simple to make at home. Yes, you can go online and purchase a “yogurt maker”, or, using your instant thermometer, you can make it by simply following the directions then placing the culture in an oven you’ve preheated to 125°F, then turn the oven OFF, and the oven light ON. This becomes your own home made incubator. Just remember not to open the oven door while incubation is going on.

If you’ve ever made home made yeast bread, it’s the same principal. Start with whole milk and store-bought genuine Greek yogurt with NO additives. It’s that simple. Once you get it going, you can make one batch from the next.

Making Greek Yogurt:

Heat one cup or more of whole milk to 160 degrees. Allow the milk to cool to 110 degrees. Use an instant read thermometer to keep track of the temps. Mustn’t be too warm or too cool.

For each cup of milk, mix in 2 teaspoons of room temperature Greek yogurt from a previous batch or from the store in a glass container. Add ½ of the cooled milk to the starter and mix well.

Add the second half of the cooled milk to the mixture and mix well.

Cover the yogurt and incubate at 110 degrees for 5-7 hours. Easy to do in an oven you’ve preheated and cooled to the precise temperature. Keep the oven light ON for the entire period to hold the correct temperature.

Once the yogurt is set (when the jar is tipped, the yogurt shouldn’t run up the side of the jar and should move away from the side of the jar as a single mass), allow the yogurt to cool for two hours.

Place the yogurt in a sterile jar the refrigerator for 6 hours to halt the culturing process.

When it’s time to make a new batch, place 2 teaspoons of yogurt from the previous batch in a cup of new milk and start again. Larger batches can be made (up to two quarts per container) by maintaining the same yogurt-to-milk ratio. Yogurt from each batch can be used to make the next batch. Yogurt from batch A is used to make batch B, yogurt from batch B is used to make batch C and so on. To perpetuate the culture, be sure to make a new batch of yogurt at least once every seven days. Waiting longer than one week between culturing can weaken and eventually kill the culture.

Click Here for a good commercial yogurt maker you could order if you don’t trust yourself in this home grown science experiment.

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About Linda Eckhardt

Linda West Eckhardt, is an award winning journalist, food writer, and nutritionist. Her more than 20 cookbooks have garnered prizes including the James Beard prize for the best cookbook for a text she wrote with her daughter, Katherine West DeFoyd, entitled Entertaining 101, Doubleday. Their follow-up book, Stylish One Dish Dinners, Doubleday, was also nominated for a James Beard prize. Their next book, The High Protein Cookbook, Clarkson Potter, remains a best seller after 12 years. That book was designed to accompany low carb diet plans. Her ground-breaking book, Bread in Half The Time, Broadway Books, was named the Best Cookbook in America by the prestigious IACP, The Julia Child award. Her award winning radio work with Jennifer English, for a national show on the Food and Wine radio network, was nominated for a James Beard Prize for a show called, “I Know What You Ate Last Summer.”

One Comment

the paleo diet recipes

October 6, 2012 at 11:08 am

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