Kelly Thompson admits that she is a frozen yogurt fanatic. “We probably come here three times a week,” said Thompson, as she and her daughter Maddie enjoyed the cool treat at the Top It Frozen Yogurt store in Holladay.
On this visit, Thompson chose creamy vanilla yogurt covered with chocolate sauce and nuts. Her daughter enjoys her usual: cookies and cream yogurt topped with crushed Oreo cookies. Thompson said they plan to come back in a few days because “they didn’t have my favorite flavor, yellow-cake batter.”
Just like everything else from the 1980s, “fro-yo” is making a comeback. Only this time around, customers have more flavors, more control over portion size and options for a few more health benefits.
“This is the second coming of frozen yogurt,” explains Robert Garfield, senior vice president for the National Yogurt Association, located in McClean, Va.
In the 1980s, several dozen frozen yogurt companies made big profits selling the soft-serve treat. “The only problem was that it wasn’t really yogurt, a lot of it was ice cream with a little bit of tart flavor or cultures added in,” Garfield said.
That first-generation of frozen yogurt fell out of favor when consumers — who believed they were eating something healthy— starting packing on the pounds. The popular television series “Seinfeld” even poked fun at the phenomenon when Julia Louis Dreyfus’ character, Elaine, went on a frozen yogurt binge and gained seven pounds.
Today, companies market frozen yogurt as a better alternative to ice cream as it contains no fat, no added sugar and contains live and active cultures, or the “good” bacteria that aids in digestion and improves the immune system. “It’s 180 degrees from before,” Garfield said.
Many larger companies have their products certified so it can carry the association’s “Live and Active Cultures” seal. To get the certification, the frozen yogurt must contain a minimum of 10 million live culture per gram. When consumers are trying to distinguish real yogurt products from the imposters, they should look for the seal on the frozen yogurt machines, Garfield said.
Full Article: The Salt Lake Tribune
24. June 2010 at 5:55 pm
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