It's All Greek to Me

Food fads are like shooting stars: flying off mega mart shelves one minute before disappearing into the back-of-the-pantry black hole the next. Health food fads seem even more fleeting, as new diets, cure-alls, and miracle foods appear on the market every day. One fad that I hope will be around for the long haul is Greek yogurt, specifically nonfat, plain Greek yogurt. 

After one spoonful of this velvety, tangy substance I was hooked. I now enjoy a creamy bowl of Greek yogurt almost daily. I am not alone, in recent years consumer demand sparked large-scale Greek yogurt production in the United States by several companies. The short ingredients list of this trendy yogurt lends itself well to in depth analysis of product sourcing and manufacture across multiple brands.   

As hard as I have tried, I can simply not choose a favorite Greek yogurt brand. Chobani and Oikos are my two favorite brands and are two of the most popular Greek yogurts on supermarket shelves. In order to better understand these products, I will compare the production of both brands from farm to cup in an attempt to procure the information necessary to make a more informed decision in the refrigerated aisle.

First things first, allow me to enlighten you. 

Greek yogurt as we know it in America is more commonly known globally as strained yogurt. 

 

This exotic member of the yogurt family is produced by straining much of the water and whey from fermented milk, traditionally with cheesecloth or fine muslin. As a consequence of this process Greek yogurt requires at least three times more milk than standard, loose yogurt, which typically demands on gallon of milk per gallon of yogurt.

Straining!

Nonfat Greek yogurt utilizes this same process, simply substituting skim milk instead of its full fat counterpart.