Press Release from Fage:
FAGE, a Greek dairy company, has launched FRUYO, a yogurt dessert made exclusively from stirred yogurt and juicy fruit pieces.
FRUYO has a texture of stirred yogurt. FRUYO has no coloring and preservatives, with only 1.5% fat. Fruyo, with stirred yogurt and indulging fruit pieces, is available in seven flavors with 1.5% fat, the company said.
The seven flavors are: strawberry, peach, cherry, pineapple, vanilla, musli and pineapple banana cereals
Did you catch that?
FAGE, a Greek dairy company, has launched FRUYO, a yogurt dessert made exclusively from stirred yogurt and juicy fruit pieces....
A yogurt dessert.
Perhaps that should have been clue #1, huh? Not Greek yogurt, but a yogurt dessert. Now, NOWHERE on the cup I bought did it say yogurt dessert. It says "Greek nonfat strained yogurt blended with vanilla."
But, I was psyched to try and review a new yogurt for you, so I only found that out after the fact; after I tried it. Upon opening the cup, I was surprised that "blended with vanilla" was an accurate phrase. I saw flecks of vanilla bean - promising! I was impressed with the thickness and didn't stop to contemplate that before I shoveled the spoon into my mouth and instantly - INSTANTLY - one word entered my head. Dannon. It was thick and sweet and like a Dannon product, a definitely not like a Greek yogurt.
The consistency, the overwhelming sweetness, everything. I was shocked. It had NONE of the tart Greek zing you'd expect from a Fage product. I'm sure I scrunched up my face as I examined the cup, even as I was swallowing the first spoonful...and if I had done that BEFORE I did my Porky Pig impression...I would have gone no further.
Folks, Fage Fruyo is NOT Clean. At all. No way, no how, No Sir.
Ingredients: Strained yogurt ( Grade A Pasturized Skimmed milk, Live active yogurt cultures, SUGAR, Water, Rice and Corn Starch, Natural vanilla flavor, Ground Vanilla Beans, Lemon Juice Concentrate.
Calories: 170 in 6 oz.
Sugar: 27 grams
So it has 2 sources of sugar - the inherent milk sugar, and added cane sugar. So, you could essentially open 27 packages of sugar and eat those straight. Same thing.
Really, Fage? You make a wonderfully healthy and nutritious regular Greek yogurt, and then right next to it, you put this junk? Why is this product called a yogurt dessert in Greece - but you've labeled it as Greek yogurt here? Does it not meet the Greek government's product standards for yogurt?
Well - it's an important lesson, and one I've been hit with a few times in the last few weeks. Just because something is by a trusted company doesn't mean their new product can also be trusted. Also, you HAVE to examine your products to see if the ingredient list is Clean for you.
I won't buy it again. It was an all around disappointment - and a "Bait and Switch" I wouldn't have expected from Fage. Their other products are excellent. This is...not yogurt.