Stick with your Stonyfield...

If you have been in our bootcamp classes over the last couple days we have reviewing food labels - specifically a few different types of yogurt. When Nancy was doing some comparison shopping, she was looking at one of our favorite brands - Stonyfield, and noticed it was labeled much differently than the others, in that the cultures were not listed in the ingredients, but in a separate window. She called customer service, and we shared that conversation with you in class.

Well we have some avid Stonyfield eaters, and one of them decided to do some follow up, and I am glad she did. Either the lady we talked to was misinformed or we misunderstood, so I wanted to share the letter Supercamper Donna got back - in writing - from Stonyfield.  While I am still not sure I like unnecessary ingredients like pectin in the product, and believe it would be helpful if all manufacturers labeled their products the same way, we don't want to throw a NH Product under the bus unnecessarily, or give inaccurate info, so I wanted to share the letter.

Personally I think Donna just likes to try to prove me wrong, but that's a whole 'nother story!  :)

From Stonyfield:

Hello Donna,

Thank you for taking the time to contact us. We’re always happy to getcomments and questions from our yogurt lovers and are grateful when someonetakes the time to let us know what they think of our Company and products.

In order to highlight our unique culture blend, we chose to list thecultures in a separate box on the nutrition label. Cultured pasteurizedmilk is still listed in the ingredient legend. This satisfies the labelingrequirement and means that live and active cultures have been added to ourproducts through the milk. And now with the long list of cultures removedfrom the ingredient statement, you're able to focus on our short list ofnatural and organic ingredients.

Pectin is a natural substance derived from apples and citrus fruit. We useit to help keep our yogurt from separating. You'll notice that we never addartificial flavors, colors, sweeteners and preservatives like other brands.

Sincerely,

The folks at Stonyfield Farm