Overhearing a customer at Whole Foods today tell his companions that the non-fat Stonyfield Farms they held in their hands was not, in truth, yogurt, I was compelled to ask him whatever did he mean. He had me compare the list of ingredients in the Stonyfield Farms to that of a seemingly local brand of yogurt, the former contained skim milk, inulin and pectin (‘thickeners, whereas real yogurt is naturally thickened by bacterial cultures’), and “active cultures.” The other brand listed only “cultured yogurt.” It was claimed that most commercial yogurts are not, in fact, real yogurt, but have the bacterial cultures added at the end of the manufacturing process ‘so that the label can honestly claim it contains active cultures.’ The cited source of this knowledge was a three week intensive food science course at Penn State University.
Do commercial yogurts have bacterial cultures added at the end of the manufacturing process? What exactly is “yogurt” anyway? Is Stonyfield Farm healthier than Dannon or Yoplait (aside from merely the relative sugar content)?
Since yogurt is made by introducing cutures into the milk, how does he suppose they “manufacture” it without these cultures?
I call BS. Commercial yogurts may be sweetened to a degree totally unnecessary, but they are “real” yogurts. There are some that are pasteurized before packaging, to make them shelf-stable. These will not have live cultures in them. But your run-of-the-mill Yoplait or Dannon is made with cultures and has them in the final product.
That’s the whole idea. You can get yogurt-like substance by thickening using other means. Whether that constitutes real yogurt or not is a matter of debate. I will contend, however, that anything that contains gelatin or stabilizers is not “Sour Cream” but rather “Artificially Thickened Sour Half-and-half”. I’d imagine yogurt purists would have a similar argument.
I don’t accept the notion that if a yogurt contains pectin or stabilizers it was not also made by the natural bacterial culture of milk. Additives can be used to extend shelf life, stabilize consistency and modify the texture of naturally cultured yogurt.
I don’t think anybody is claiming that. I wouldn’t be surprised if some things that are labeled “Yogurt” do not actually have any cultured milk products. I don’t think US has any nazi labeling laws about yogurt (correct me if I’m wrong). There’s definitely some about ice cream.
§ 131.200 Yogurt.
(a) Description. Yogurt is the food
produced by culturing one or more of
the optional dairy ingredients specified
in paragraph (c) of this section with a
characterizing bacterial culture that
contains the lactic acid-producing bac-teria,
Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Strep-tococcus
thermophilus. One or more of
the other optional ingredients specified
in paragraphs (b) and (d) of this section
may also be added. When one or more
of the ingredients specified in para-graph
(d)(1) of this section are used,
they shall be included in the culturing
process. All ingredients used are safe
and suitable. Yogurt, before the addi-tion
of bulky flavors, contains not less
than 3.25 percent milkfat and not less
than 8.25 percent milk solids not fat,
and has a titratable acidity of not less
than 0.9 percent, expressed as lactic
acid. The food may be homogenized and
shall be pasteurized or ultra-pasteur-ized
prior to the addition of the bac-terial
culture. Flavoring ingredients
may be added after pasteurization or
ultra-pasteurization. To extend the
shelf life of the food, yogurt may be
heat treated after culturing is com-pleted,
to destroy viable microorga-nisms.
(b) Vitamin addition (optional). (1) If
added, vitamin A shall be present in
such quantity that each 946 milliliters
(quart) of the food contains not less
than 2,000 International Units thereof,
within limits of current good manufac-turing
practice.
(2) If added, vitamin D shall be
present in such quantity that each 946
milliliters (quart) of the food contains
400 International Units thereof, within
limits of current good manufacturing
practice.
(c) Optional dairy ingredients. Cream,
milk, partially skimmed milk, or skim
milk, used alone or in combination.
(d) Other optional ingredients. (1) Con-centrated
skim milk, nonfat dry milk,
buttermilk, whey, lactose, lactalbum-ins,
lactoglobulins, or whey modified
by partial or complete removal of lac-tose
and/or minerals, to increase the
nonfat solids content of the food: Pro-vided,
That the ratio of protein to total
nonfat solids of the food, and the pro-tein
efficiency ratio of all protein
present shall not be decreased as a re-sult
of adding such ingredients.
(2) Nutritive carbohydrate sweet-eners.
Sugar (sucrose), beet or cane; in-vert
sugar (in paste or sirup form);
brown sugar; refiner’s sirup; molasses
(other than blackstrap); high fructose
corn sirup; fructose; fructose sirup;
maltose; maltose sirup, dried maltose
sirup; malt extract, dried malt extract;
malt sirup, dried malt sirup; honey;
maple sugar; or any of the sweeteners
listed in part 168 of this chapter, except
table sirup.
(3) Flavoring ingredients.
(4) Color additives.
(5) Stabilizers.
(e) Methods of analysis. The following
referenced methods of analysis are
from ‘‘Official Methods of Analysis of
the Association of Official Analytical
Chemists,’’ 13th Ed. (1980), which is in-corporated
by reference. Copies are
available from the AOAC INTER-NATIONAL,
481 North Frederick Ave.,
suite 500, Gaithersburg, MD 20877, or
available for inspection at the National
Archives and Records Administration
(NARA). For information on the avail-ability
of this material at NARA, call
202–741–6030, or go to: http:// www.archives.gov/federal register/
code of federal regulations/
ibr locations.html.
(1) Milkfat content—As determined
by the method prescribed in section
16.059 ‘‘Roese-Gottlieb Method (Ref-erence
Method) (11)—Official Final Ac-tion,
’’ under the heading ‘‘Fat.’’
(2) Milk solids not fat content—Cal-culated
by subtracting the milkfat con-tent
from the total solids content as
determined by the method prescribed
in section 16.032, ‘‘Method I—Official
Final Action,’’ under the heading
‘‘Total Solids.’’
On the Science Channel program “How It’s Made,” they did yogurt, and indeed it was made of milk that went through the culturing process with live bacteria…
All sorts of things are one molecule away from being plastic. Water is one molecule away from being plastic: Just take away the water molecule, and replace it with a plastic molecule.
My joke was a reference to a rather nonsensical idea floating around that margarine is one molecule away from being plastic. By the exact same token, as Chronos pointed out, water is one molecule away from being uranium hexafluoride.
Really? I have a container of Danon All Natural yogurt, and it lists only one ingredient: Cultured Grade A milk. I assume gelatin would have to be listed if it were included. Now, I also have some “Middle Eastern Style” yogurt, and that has all sorts of crap in it, but the Dannon All Natural seems to be pure yogurty goodness.
Nnnno. A molecule is what water is. A glass of 100% pure water is a glass of water molecules. (How many molecules depends on the mass and the isotope ratios of the atoms the molecules are made out of. Just picture an unimaginably gigantic number and multiply it by the national debt.) If you change the molecules from water to (a specific kind of) plastic, you now have a cup of (presumably molten) plastic. That’s the only possible way to interpret the ‘one molecule away from’ statement that doesn’t raise more, stupider questions.
I’ve now wasted more brain power on this nonsense than any five people who believe in it. Good day.
