Greek yogurt is now the latest food item to be accused of having food additives in it.
Greek yogurt traditionalists have been angered by the fact that most Greek yogurt companies use thickening agents to achieve the right consistency.
NPR, a popular blog, spoke with Hamdi Ulukaya, founder of the successful 7-year-old company Chobani. Ulukaya is critical of companies that employ short cuts in making Greek yogurt, which is usually strained to remove excess liquid, to produce a thick and creamy product.
"We want to make yogurt the way it was meant to be," he says. But, adding thickening agents to quicken the process "ruins the expectation in the consumer's mind of how pure and simple this product is."
Food scientist Erhan Yildiz is credited with the development of thickening agents, which when added to regular yogurt gives it the characteristic thick consistency of Greek yogurt.
Yildiz doesn't see anything wrong with such practices, which provide a more cost-effective alternative to the expensive straining machines used by Ulukaya and other traditionalists.
In recent years, Greek yogurt has seen a big boom in the US market. According to the Wall Street Journal, it now represents 28 percent of all yogurt business in the US. It's estimated to increase to 40 percent over the next year and 120 percent over the next five.
Chobani is doing really well in the market. Its success is attributed to the fact that it does not use thickening agents, and that it uses traditional methods.
Ulukaya's concern over the addition of thickening agents is shared by many others. Yopliat, a Greek yogurt brand produced by General Mills, has a huge lawsuit on it over its use of food additives. It is being accused of not being real Greek yogurt, because of its use of a milk protein concentrate which causes yogurt to thicken up.
NPR notes that the Food and Drug Administration established a "standard of identity" for yogurt about 30 years ago, and a 1981 version of the measure did not allow the use of thickening agents. That section was "stayed" when the industry protested.
