General Mills Inc. will switch up its game plan with Yoplait Greek yogurt in July. The company has announced that its ingredients, flavors and cup size will all get updated, most notably dropping milk protein concentrate as a thickening agent.
The move comes as Yoplait looks to compete harder against products such as those from Chobani, Inc., The Wall Street Journal reports. Chobani has tried to distinguish itself in marketing this year, emphasizing a lack of so-called fillers, and the FDA is currently reviewing whether or not milk protein concentrate should be permitted in Greek yogurt after a Minneapolis law firm sued over the ingredient.
Given this kind of pressure, it seems easy to understand why General Mills would look for a safer, less controversial path to Greek yogurt dominance. We know that Yoplait recently sat atop the yogurt market overall, but the WSJ reports that the brand has recently fall behind Dannon in non-Greek yogurt and lags behind Chobani in the Greek segment.
Expect to see Yoplait's new Greek yogurt arrive in blueberry, coconut, pineapple, strawberry-raspberry, tangerine and vanilla flavors and in a 5.3-ounce size that is significantly smaller than the traditional 6-ounce cups.