Is traditional yogurt the most natural type of yogurt? Does it have higher nutritional value than other yogurts? Does it have special health benefits? Is it safer than other yogurts? Is it particularly suitable for children because it contains no additives? Wang Huaibao and Nan Qingxian, senior experts in China's dairy industry, stated that in fact, not only traditional yogurt contains food thickeners like gelatin, agar, carrageenan, and pectin, but a journalist's investigation also found that these ingredients are present in almost all types of yogurt, including various fruit and grain yogurts, and even regular yogurt.
How is real traditional yogurt made?
Actually, so-called "traditional yogurt" is a concept for traditionally made yogurt products, but its original meaning has been lost. Different regions have their own "traditional yogurts," which are the coagulated yogurts made in the traditional way. This type of yogurt is not a thick liquid but is basically solid. This solid state is not achieved by adding any setting agents, but is a special gel state of milk protein. By adding pasteurized milk, sugar, and a bacterial culture to a clean container and incubating it for several hours, the milk turns solid, as anyone who makes yogurt at home knows. This protein gel is very fragile; vigorous stirring can turn the seemingly firm gel back into liquid milk. If you can stretch it to your ankle, you need more relevant exercise.
In our childhood, yogurt everywhere was this solid product, but as dairy production increased, this product gradually disappeared from the market. This is because coagulated yogurt is easily affected by mechanical forces like shaking and vibration during transportation, which compromises its texture. Consumers would be dissatisfied to see broken curds or even liquid yogurt.
At the same time, because solid yogurt cannot have ingredients like fruit juice or fruit pieces added to it, for the sake of convenient transportation and sales, people started adding some thickeners. The large batch of fermented yogurt curd is slowly stirred to break it down into a thick semi-fluid. This is the state of the dominant yogurt product on the market.
If less thickener is used, the yogurt product often tends to be liquid, albeit slightly thicker than milk. Some consumers might think the yogurt is "lacking in substance" and dislike it, but this is actually a very normal state.
However, after getting used to this thick yogurt, people have grown a bit tired of it. At this point, the new product "traditional yogurt" caught everyone's eye. It appeared in the guise of a traditional product, but to avoid the trouble of it becoming thin during transportation, gelatin was added. This way, no matter how much it is shaken, it won't turn liquid, making transportation and sales very convenient.
Ordinary milk raw materials, with the addition of plant gums like gelatin, agar, and carrageenan, can be made into this curdled state. I have made similar curds in my lab, and the texture and mouthfeel were even better than some commercial products, although I never turned this formula into an actual product.
Therefore, strictly speaking, so-called "traditional yogurt" products on the market should more accurately be called "yogurt curds."
Knowing this production process makes it clear that these yogurt curd products do not increase the nutritional value of yogurt. They contain neither added probiotic bacteria nor extra nutrients, and there's no need to improve the quality of the raw materials, which could even be lowered. Traditionally, milk for making yogurt had to be high in protein, low in antibiotics, and have low levels of bacteria to successfully form a yogurt curd. Now, with the help of plant gums, a curd can be made even if the raw milk's protein content is low, so the requirements for the raw materials have actually been lowered.
In fact, I checked the nutritional labels of "traditional yogurt" products on the market, and they have no advantage over other products, and some are even lower. In terms of sensory evaluation, some products also feel low in protein and have a strong jelly-like texture. In terms of safety, it has no advantage either. Besides not requiring higher quality raw materials, it doesn't prevent the addition of various food additives. The flavoring in some products is very strange, and it seems that besides the lactic acid from fermentation, other organic acids have also been added. If you can stretch it to your ankle, you need more relevant exercise.
As it turns out, most "traditional yogurt" products on the market today are different from the traditionally made, purely raw material-based old yogurt. They have no advantages in nutrition or safety, nor do they have special health benefits. Moreover, because they commonly contain food additives, they are not suitable for children under 2 years old.
It is especially important to note that some "traditional yogurt" products are in a very firm curd state that cannot be stirred into a liquid. Like jelly, it is very dangerous for a child to choke on this yogurt curd and inhale it into their trachea.
Children over 3 years old need not worry, but younger children whose swallowing functions are not yet fully developed should be particularly careful when eating it. Adults must supervise them closely to prevent accidents.
Just by seeing the enthusiasm of various companies for making "traditional yogurt," you know this product must be very profitable—that is, it belongs to a type of product with a low barrier to entry, simple technology, but high profit margins, making it easy for everyone to jump on the bandwagon. But if our market is dominated by products with low technical content, mediocre nutritional and safety quality, that make a lot of money simply by hyping a concept, while products with excellent intrinsic quality and higher technology are ignored, who will still strive to make healthier, more nutritious, and higher-quality products for consumers? In the long run, consumers are the ones who will ultimately lose out.
So, liking the texture of a product is fine, and being willing to pay for that texture is a matter of personal choice. It's not like yogurt itself is a very healthy food; even for a drink with such poor health value as Coke, aren't there people who voluntarily spend a lot of money to buy it? However, our consumption must be an informed one; we must know what we are buying. If you believe that traditional yogurt is more nutritious, safer, or healthier than other products and are switching yogurt products for this reason, then you should quickly update your knowledge before making your choice.
The "traditional yogurt," which has been all the rage from 2010 to today, has suddenly been hit by a cold front. Recently, many domestic media have successively published reports with titles like "'Traditional Yogurt' is Actually Gelatin 'Jelly'" and "Traditional Yogurt is a Hyped Concept," questioning the addition of "gelatin" and other food thickeners to traditional yogurt and claiming that its protein and other nutrient contents are not high. In an instant, all sorts of comments about traditional yogurt flooded in, and there were even claims that "traditional yogurt is junk food." Is traditional yogurt actually good or bad? To find out, our newspaper interviewed several authoritative experts. They pointed out that traditional yogurt is neither "more nutritious and pure natural" as some claim, nor "junk food."
Journalists found in many supermarkets in Beijing that many brands of traditional yogurt were on sale. When asked if the price reduction was related to recent media reports that "traditional yogurt contains gelatin," the sales staff denied it. They told reporters that traditional yogurt hasn't been popular for a long time. Consumers' attitude towards traditional yogurt was initially driven by the pursuit of a novel texture, but the hype has now cooled down, forcing them to offer promotions.
It is understood that the first company to produce traditional yogurt on the market was Qinghai Xiaoxin Biological Dairy Co., Ltd. In 2008, their "Qinghai Traditional Yogurt" with a blue-and-white porcelain packaging was popular with consumers in Qinghai and Ningxia. It was then promoted to the national market in 2010. From the second half of 2010, the daily output of "Qinghai Traditional Yogurt" increased from the initial 4 tons to over 70 tons, but it was still in short supply. The huge market demand led major dairy companies to imitate it, causing a "traditional yogurt craze."
Along with the rise of "traditional yogurt," its criticism has never stopped: high prices, health risks from small businesses blindly following the trend... And this time, the media's focus was mainly on two aspects: first, the addition of gelatin and other food thickeners; and second, because of the addition of thickeners, it is not true, as companies claim, that only high-protein milk can be used to make traditional yogurt. "Even if the milk protein content is low, it doesn't hinder the formation of a curd state," so its nutritional advantage is completely gone. Most importantly, the recent series of food safety incidents have made the public very sensitive to the term "food additives." In the investigation, many people, upon hearing the word "gelatin," believe that traditional yogurt is completely inedible; and the use of the word "scam" in some media reports has also made consumers feel they have been "deceived" by "traditional yogurt."