Yo! Fro-Yo!

As a person, I am fond of trying any sort of food that I see—may it be pasta, ice cream, siomai, stir fried noodles, tea, and many more. An addition to that countless list is frozen yogurt (also called as ‘FRO-YO’). Out of sheer curiosity, I tried eating some in one shop which offers soft-served fro-yo. It was somewhat tangy and the consistency was bordering the middle (between creamy and watery). After that, I’ve managed to try fro-yos from other shops. What can I say is that the differences in the quality easily surface with a mere taste from a spoon.

In relation to that, almost every one of us might have already observed the rapid increase of shops that offer frozen yogurts. Creamy yogurts that can be sprinkled with a variety of toppings that one can choose from (fruits, chocolates, cereals, biscuits, etc). They also come in different flavors: original, green tea, or coffee. Although there are two types of these mouth-watering frozen yogurts (soft served or hard packed), the most common here in the Philippines is the soft served.With the emergence of the availability of non-fat, low carbohydrate food in the market, who would not be smitten by the alluring characteristics of frozen yogurts? According to Stuart (1979), the refreshing taste accompanied by the nutritional benefits became the deciding factor that certainly made people hooked in frozen yogurts. A study conducted in the early 1990s has shown that there is a preference for frozen yogurt that has a low acid and high sugar content (Guinard Little, Marty, & Palchak , 1994). And contrary to the hype of low fat frozen yogurt these days, Kım, Kim, Baick, Lee & Yu (1993) explained that consumers actually favor fro-yos that have a high fat content.

Based from the abovementioned features of frozen yogurt you may have, by this time, caught the trend of the marketing strategies used to enable this product to penetrate our senses. As the attention of FRO-YO producers is focused on the visual packaging as well as the taste and its consistency, the important aspect of putting the proper amount of live culture of bacteria is neglected. Meyer (1989), argued that the required amount of live cultures in a frozen yogurt that would actually produce beneficial effects in the digestive system is estimated to be about 5 million to 10 million cells per milliliter. She added that most of the consumers are unaware of that. As of present time, there exists no federal standard for frozen yogurts so there is a great variation in the composition (fat, sugar, acid, and total solids) among different competing producers (Guinard Little, Marty, & Palchak , 1994).

On that note, we must begin to be more critical about what kind of food we are consuming. It might look pleasant to the eyes and the advertisements can be quite magnetizing. A real frozen yogurt must contain the necessary amount of live cultures. "The only difference between most frozen yogurt and ice milk is the perception in the consumer's mind of the benefits of yogurt over ice milk," suggests Greg Sheil, president of Yo-Fruit Specialties (page 2. cited in Meyer, 1989). Let us not be easily fooled. We must enhance our difference threshold (the smallest difference between two stimuli that a person can detect) for us to be able to detect if there really are live cultures inside of the frozen yogurt that we eat. Hence, the next time that we crave for something creamy yet healthy, we could be confident enough to choose the best fro-yo that the market has to offer!

REFERENCES:

Guinard, J X, Little C, Marty C and Palchak T R (1994). Effect of sugar and acid on the acceptability of frozen yogurt to a student population. Journal of Dairy Science 77 1232–1238.

Kım, J. H., Kim, Y. H., Baick, S. C., Lee, Y. G. & Yu, J. H. (1993). Studies on the manufacture of frozen yogurt made with different mixing ratios of raw milk and whole skim milk powder. Korean Journal of Dairy Science 15 128–134.

Meyer, A. (1989). Will the real frozen yogurt please stand up? - includes related articles on growing frozen dessert industry. Dairy Foods. FindArticles.com. 06 Jul, 2010. Retrieved from: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3301/is_n2_v90/ai_7544853/

Stuart, S. L. (1979). The Dannon Book of Yogurt. Sacramento, CA: Citadel Press.

(Jeni)