Chobani & Fage

The two products that were examined for this project were Chobani and Fage yogurt. At its core, yogurt is considered to be milk that has been fermented that is created by bacteria. For the most part, cow's milk has been utilized to create yogurt. In all grocery stores, yogurt showed up in the dairy section.

Chobani yogurt is Greek style yogurt manufactured by the company located in New York. On their website, Chobani noted that their purpose is to create products of high quality and ensures that all natural ingredients are used. Specifically, Chobani highlighted that "yogurt [making] should be simple. It's been made the same way for thousands of years, and who are [they] to change it?" (Chobani, 2013). Chobani is committed and dedicated to ensuring customer satisfaction with their specialty flavors including Apple Cinnamon, Blood Orange and Pear among the traditional flavored yogurts such as Blueberry and Vanilla.

Fage yogurt is a yogurt company based in Athens, Greece that manufactures Greek yogurt as Chobani does. Fage has been referred to as a "one of a kind yogurt" (Fage, 2013). The company has a special design to their packaging being attractive with its shape, presentation and known for motivating consumers by giving them the opportunity to pour their flavorings into a plain yogurt container. As with Chobani, Fage's mission has been and continues to be driven by providing "innovative high-quality products [that] balance nutrition of consumers around the world" (Fage, 2013).

Yogurt's Purpose

In an article by Amorgos Island Magazine, it argued that Greek Yogurt provides many health benefits to the body particularly "bone health, weight loss [and] regularity"(DeVivo, 2013). While these were not the only benefits the article mentioned, they were the standouts as was the article's emphasis on probiotics, which is what is present in yogurts of all kinds including Chobani and Fage. Probiotics, the article states are "healthy, necessary microbial flora that helps with digestion" (DeVivo, 2013).Essentially, yogurt offers humans a variety of both flavorful tastes and powerful bodily support. Additionally, Greek yogurt has been described by both dieticians and medical researchers as being low in calories because of its sweet and savory taste. It is often a recommendation for people who need a sugar fix or are fatigued because it offers "a lasting boost" (DeVivo, 2013). The article further added that when considering whether to purchase Greek yogurt or regular yogurt that one needs to understand that Greek yogurt contains double the amount of protein than regular and that it also has a small amount of salt in it when compared with regular yogurt. Greek yogurt has also been known to be quite a versatile food to be included in recipes for desserts and regular meals. People have often used it in seasonings and dips as well as sour cream because it gives the necessary creaminess and tang that sour cream offers without the extra fat that sour cream provides (DeVivo, 2013).

What Other Companies Make Greek Yogurt? In addition to Chobani and Fage, Dannon also makes Greek Yogurt and Stonyfield Farms does too. While their yogurts are good in terms of fulfilling the purpose of yogurt, they do not compare in taste to Chobani or Fage.

Cost Comparison & Availability

Depending upon what grocery store that is visited, Chobani is anywhere between $2 to $4 while Fage is typically $3 to $5. While this price range was generally what was observed for the purposes of this project, there have been times that both yogurts have fallen outside of those ranges. Chobani and Fage were available at each of the grocery stores that were visited for the project. The stores visited were Albertson's, Ralph's, Vons and Whole Foods Market. Target and Trader Joe's were also visited. Out of the stores that were visited, Ralph's only had Chobani, while the others carried both Greek yogurt brands. The Albertson's store that was visited only carried the vanilla, blueberry and strawberry Chobani and the plain Fage. The other stores had a variety of flavors.

The previously mentioned specialty Chobani flavors such as Blood Orange and Pear were only observed to be at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods Market and not the other grocery stores. Target had the cheapest price on the Chobani being $2.09 per 6 oz, while Fage was $3.49. Whole Foods and Trader Joe's had similar prices. The cheapest place that carried Chobani was Target, actually and Fage was the cheapest at Trader Joe's being $2.49. Fage was the most expensive at Vons being close to $4 and Chobani was the most expensive at Whole Foods being $3.49. Additional observations were noted such as the quantity of yogurt available. With the exception of Target, Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods, all of the other stores had limited quantities while the previously mentioned Dannon Greek Yogurt was available in abundance at each of the grocery stores visited. Each of the grocery stores with the exception of Ralph’s had all flavors of Fage including the plain and their honey flavors.

Taste

As far as taste, Chobani had a richer and more vibrant texture than Fage. It was not that Fage did not taste good, because it did, but Chobani offered a better feel to the tongue than Fage. Additionally, both yogurts were tried in smoothies - the blueberry flavor and the yogurt flavor was more pronounced in the smoothie with the Chobani yogurt than with the Fage. The Fage honey yogurt, however, was phenomenal. There was probably no other flavor in the collection of Fage products that could match their honey yogurt. The Chobani honey flavored yogurt was decent, but not as good. Chobani also seemed to have more fruit in their yogurt offerings that Fage. Fage has fruit in compartments next to the yogurt so consumers can pour how much they want into their yogurt, while Chobani already has their fruit flavorings and sweet goodies at the bottom of the container and the consumer must mix it accordingly.

Label

Chobani yogurt packing is festive and depending upon the fruit or flavoring's color, that color is reflected on the packaging as are pictures of the type of fruit or flavoring. For example, the passion fruit flavor has a picture of a passion fruit on the front and the container is light purple. Fage labels and packaging are not as festive, but still have pictures of the flavorings on the front with the Fage emblem in front. When thinking about why that was, the conclusion arrived at was that Chobani's website was much more interactive and colorful than Fage's, which showed through in both companies' packaging and labels.

Shelf Life

It is a well-known fact that dairy for the most part needs refrigeration and both Chobani and Fage required refrigeration almost immediately after purchasing. Yogurt usually has been observed to have a shelf life for "1-2 weeks" for the refrigerator and if the consumer opted for freezing it "1-2 months" ("How Long Does Yogurt (Yoghurt) Last?" 2012).

References

Chobani. (2013). Retrieved from http://chobani.com/home/

De Vivo, M. (2013, February 17). Say OPA! To Greek Yogurt. Amorgos Island Magazine, Retrieved from http://amorgos-island-magazine.com/say-opa-to-greek-yogurt/

Fage. (2013). Retrieved from http://usa.fage.eu/

How Long Does Yogurt (Yoghurt) Last?". (2012). Retrieved from http://www.eatbydate.com/dairy/yogurt-shelf-life-expiration-date/