The rise of Greek yogurt in the United States has been
a swift one. Last year, Greek yogurt brought in $1.6 billion in sales, an
increase of 50 percent from 2011. It’s a remarkable statistic considering that
in 2007 Greek yogurt accounted for only one percent of the refrigerated yogurt
market — it’s now up to 35 percent. But with growth happening so fast the
industry is now dealing with a growing pain: acid whey.
Modern Farmer breaks down the issue:
For every three or four ounces of milk, Chobani and
other companies can produce only one ounce of creamy Greek yogurt. The rest
becomes acid whey.
It’s a thin, runny waste product that can’t simply be
dumped. Not only would that be illegal, but whey decomposition is toxic to the
natural environment, robbing oxygen from streams and rivers. That could turn a
waterway into what one expert calls a “dead sea,” destroying aquatic life over
potentially large areas. Spills of cheese whey, a cousin of Greek yogurt whey,
have killed tens of thousands of fish around the country in recent years.
Right now, it seems that much of the acid whey goes to
farmers for livestock feed, but even that doesn’t deal with the millions of
pounds of waste the industry is producing and will continue to produce. Other
solutions — like extracting protein from the whey for baby formula or
extracting lactose to use in other food production — are still in the
experimental stages. Dealing with acid whey is seen as such a challenge in the
industry that one producer said: “If we can figure out how to handle acid whey,
we’ll become a hero.”
Meanwhile, Greek yogurt sales continued to rise in the
first quarter of 2013. But from now on the health-conscious consumers the
yogurt is marketed to will have to face a bitter, toxic reality. How that
impacts America’s love affair with Greek yogurt is yet to be seen.
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