So What Is With the Rage in Greek Yogurt?

In the past several months all of a sudden the airwaves have been hit by a marketing blitz that has not been seen in a while. Not a new beer or pizza, but yogurt, or specifically, Greek Yogurt.

Greek yogurt is yogurt which has been strained in a cloth or paper bag or filter to remove the whey, giving a consistency between that of yogurt and cheese, while preserving yogurt's distinctive sour taste. Like many yogurts, strained yogurt is often made from milk which has been enriched by boiling off some of the water content, or by adding extra butterfat and powdered milk.

Yogurt strained through muslin is a traditional food in the Levant, Eastern Mediterranean, Middle East, and South Asia, where it is often used in cooking, as it is high enough in fat not to curdle at higher temperatures. It is used in both cooked and raw, savoury and sweet dishes. Due to the straining process to remove excess whey, even non-fat varieties are rich and creamy.

In Western Europe and the U.S., strained yogurt has become increasingly popular because it is richer in texture than unstrained yogurt, but low in fat; since straining removes water and dissolved salts and sugars, by volume, it has twice the protein of regular yogurt and less sodium, carbohydrates, and sugar.[citation needed]

In fact, most of the recent growth in the $4.1b yogurt industry has come from the strained yogurt segment. In the West, the term "Greek yogurt" has become synonymous with strained yogurt due to successful marketing by the Greek Fage brand, though strained yogurt is a staple in many countries besides Greece, and most yogurt in Greece is not strained. "Greek-style" yogurts are similar to Greek strained yogurt, but may be thickened with thickening agents, or if made the traditional way, are based on domestic (rather than Greek) milk.