Culture Wars – Executive Summary
Culture Wars – Full Report
Organic Yogurt Scorecard
Organic Yogurt Scorecard Scoring Criteria
Cornucopia has revamped the yogurt scorecard to focus exclusively on organic brands, using our Organic Dairy Scorecard as the foundation of our scoring criteria. Organic yogurts that received the highest score were sourced from milk that received the highest rating on our Organic Dairy Scorecard. After all, the most important component of any yogurt is the milk from which it is made.
Other factors influencing an organic yogurt item’s score include the brand’s commitment to organics, as measured by the percentage of offerings a brand sells that are certified organic; the use of coloring agents, flavors, preservatives, synthetic nutrients, and pectin or conventional thickeners; and transparency around the type of sweetener used. (Read the full details of our scoring criteria.)
The amount of sugar used is listed for informational purposes only. Just because a yogurt is certified organic, does not mean that it can’t include an alarmingly high amount of sugar. You can cut down on sugar—and save money—by buying the 32 oz tubs of plain organic yogurt and adding your own fruit and toppings.
The Organic Yogurt Scorecard includes dozens of new organic flavors and styles from brands that appeared on the old scorecard, as well as several from a brand that is new to our scorecard: The high marks earned by Alexandre Family Farms in Crescent City, California landed them in the top-rated, five-spoon category.
Overall, the updated scorecard ranks 225 varieties of organic yogurt from 29 brands. Backed by research-based findings, Cornucopia’s scorecards showcase ethical family farms and their brands, while exposing factory farm producers and brands to avoid or scrutinize.
Choose organic if you can and use our scorecard to make the most informed decisions. The conventional yogurt market is confusing and full of overly processed products.
Culture Wars: How the Food Giants Turned Yogurt, a Health Food, into Junk Food, issued by The Cornucopia Institute, accuses Dannon, Yoplait, Chobani and other major marketers of misleading parents, who are looking for healthier foods for their families, into purchasing yogurts loaded with sugar and containing a myriad of questionably safe artificial sweeteners, colors, and emulsifiers.
