It's Greek To Me - Whole Foods to stop selling Chobani Greek Yogurt

[Lodestar]

Whole Foods to Chobani: Please Leave

Is it possible to get too successful for Whole Foods? The grocery chain's latest move to stop shelving the Greek yogurt brand begs the question.

Here we've got one outstanding entrepreneur selling his product to a public company run by another crazily successful entrepreneur. Both entrepreneurs care about healthy food, and they're both supporting another large community of entrepreneurs--dairy farmers. And it looks like it's going to be quite a mess.

According to a story in the Wall Street Journal, Whole Foods Market, still run by co-founder and co-CEO John Mackey, has said it will no longer be selling Chobani yogurt as of 2014. Chobani is owned and operated by Hamdi Ulukaya, a Turkish immigrant and entrepreneur who is credited with turning struggling areas of upstate New York into a veritable yogurt Nirvana.

In a statement released by Chobani, Ulukaya said, "Though we have very limited distribution within Whole Foods, they have been an important partner of ours over the years," and added, "We hope to continue our partnership moving forward."

Whole Foods is reportedly dropping Chobani because it wants to make room on its shelves for products from smaller producers that either do not contain genetically-modified organisms or that clearly label ingredients that are genetically-modified. While Chobani markets its yogurt as "Nothing but good," there have been complaints that some of the farmers who sell milk to Chobani give their cows genetically-modified feed.

MORE -
http://www.inc.com/kimberly-weisul/whole-foods-to-chobani-please-leave.html?cid=ps01902grow


Personally I prefer FAGE Greek Yogurt.

[Melissa G]

1. I avoid greek yogurt

because of this problem: http://modernfarmer.com/2013/05/whey-too-much-greek-yogurts-dark-side/

even though I like it a lot. It will be nice when they come up with a good solution so I can go back to eating it!

[Lodestar]

2. Thanks for posting that. Interesting.

I wonder what they do with the waste in Europe (Italy, Greece, Turkey, etc)? Although yogurt is a food staple in these countries, I'm guessing they don't produce the same quantity that they do in the states, but surely they produce enough of this whey acid to have faced the same questions of disposal.

It does sound like they are on track to come up with a variety of solutions for the waste.
This info won't stop me from buying Greek Yogurt but it does make me mindful of the problems.

[Melissa G]

3. Apparently, regular yogurt does not have this problem.

Only the Greek process, (which I think has a double wash?) is so toxic-ally acidic.

I'm just making do with good regular style for now. Mango Lassi is my main source for yogurt consumption. Plain works fine.

[Major Nikon]

7. With regular yogurt the whey stays in the yogurt

Depending on how you make it yogurt is often pretty thin due to the amount of whey and many commercial yogurt producers use thickening agents to thicken up the yogurt rather than remove the whey as they do with Greek style yogurts. Quite often they will use carrageenan because it's one of the few thickening agents which works at low temperatures.

[MyNameGoesHere]

4. I make my own and as for the whey

it is used as much as the yogurt. Makes a nice substitute in the rice steamer instead of water. Adds some tang to baked breads. Lot of uses. I even use my left over whey from cheeses for tons of stuff, doggie likes a little in his food as well.

[Major Nikon]

6. I like to use it in smoothies

I also use it in bread and along with rice it works good with oatmeal and grits. I also use it to steam vegetables.

[MyNameGoesHere]

8. Good to lactose ferment veggies too. yum. eom

[SoapBox]

5. Thanks for the link.

Very interesting...never knew about this.

[Lucinda]

9. It makes me sick, big allergic reaction to it. But I'm an easy target for molds

and Chobani is known to go a bit "science experiment gone wrong" pretty often. Bill has no trouble with it at all.

Thanks for the link - will read more about it later on!

[dem in texas]

10. Try Mountain High Yogurt

This is my hands down favorite, the plain. It is a little tangier than Greek yogurt, but my breakfast fav. Whatever fresh fruit is in season (red grapefruit and bananas is yummy), yogurt, 2 teaspoons dark brown sugar on top and dry toasted Megagrain bread or English muffin on the side.

[MrMickeysMom]

11. I think the town is New South Berlin, NY...

I was recently visiting my brother in Norwich, and we drove out near New South Berlin (great NY Pizza Place there). He explained how the town of NSB had done so well with Chobani. I tried it after that. It's great.

It's great for an industry like this to thrive. They make good yogurt. Even though I make my own, I'd sort of like to think New South Berlin will do well, cause they make good yogurt.

It's pretty much that small business attitude that Whole Foods would do well to understand. I think LESS of Whole Foods now.