Product Snapshot – Chobani Greek Yoghurt Pouches

Chobani Greek yoghurt tubs have become a favourite on supermarket shelves. Their colourful tubs sold in a range of fruit flavours, as well as the standard plain flavour, take up a good section of the dairy case at my local supermarket. They are hard to miss. So it came as no surprise when I spotted their range of convenient single-serve yoghurt pouches. Pouches are the big trend of the moment – just witness the number of new fruit purées, baby foods, fruit gels and yoghurts now in convenient pouch form.

Chobani Greek yoghurt tubs taste great and are popular for sound reasons. They are thick and creamy, not too tart, and the fruit combinations taste natural, unlike some other brands on the market.

The advantage of the squeeze pouch over the tub is that it’s spoon-free. You suck the yoghurt out of the pouch like it’s a drink or purée - making it very easy to eat whilst on the go i.e. driving to work or catching the bus. When you're finished, there’s no mess - you can simply tuck your empty pouch back into your bag if there’s no bin around. For this reason, I assume these pouches are aimed at young people and gym goers who want to eat quickly when they’re out and about.

I can see how this product would appeal to those individuals who love the original Chobani yoghurt but don’t always have time to sit down and eat by the spoonful. However, I really feel that the act of eating yoghurt spoonful by spoonful makes it a lot more satisfying. Perhaps using a spoon slows your rate of eating. Whatever, I find the usual 170gram tub of Chobani extremely filling and quite a substantial snack, but I could have easily swallowed two of these pouches in a row. The squeeze pouch make it too easy to over consume.

Nutrition figures:

You get 140 grams of Chobani yoghurt in the pouch versus 170 grams in the tub.  In the squeeze pouch, you get a substantial 12.6 grams of protein (another attraction to the gym goers), no fat and 140 mg of calcium which gives me over 10 percent of my day’s recommended intake. Not bad.

Price: $2.15 (Woolworths)  or $2.17 (Coles)

Ingredients side by side

Comparing the same blueberry flavour side by side, tub against pouch, here’s the ingredient list from both. You can see that the pouch has more ingredients and is less ‘natural’ e.g. in place of the 8% blueberries, you get a 20% fruit blend which is made up of sugar (we calculate 6%), purée, gums, flavours and juice extract. They are almost the same but with minor differences to make them fit their end package.

Chobani blueberry yoghurt in 170 g TUB

Fat-Free Yogurt (80% ) [Skim Milk, S. Thermophilus, L. Bulgaricus, L. Acidophilus, Bifidus, L. Casei], Blueberries (8%), Sugar, Vegetable Gums (Pectin, Locust Bean Gum), Natural Flavour.

Chobani blueberry 140 g POUCH snack

Fat-free Yogurt (80%) [Skim Milk, S. Thermophilus, L. Bulgaricus, L. Acidophilus, Bifidus, L. Casei], Fruit Blend (20%) [Sugar, Blueberry Purée (30%), Vegetable Gums (Pectin, Locust Bean Gum), Natural Flavour, Fruit and Vegetable Juice Concentrate].

PROs

• no mess, no spoon needed – perfect to eat in the car
• convenient and portable - easy to carry in a handbag for a short period as it needs to be kept chilled
• nice-tasting and sweet 
• a sensibly-sized snack - only 128 Calories (540 kilojoules)
• good source of calcium and protein
• zero fat

CONs

• costs more gram for gram than the Chobani tubs - $1.55 vs $1.30 per 100 g
• not very satisfying – gone in three sucks!
• easy to overeat
• must be kept chilled unlike fruit or muesli bars
• not available in every flavour of the tub range

The bottom line

The new pouch is a healthy choice if you want something dairy and small and can keep it chilled (or eat it within an hour or so) but like most things, once you make something smooth, soft and easier to consume, you inevitably make it easy to overdo. I’ll stick with the tub and my plastic spoon for now and keep enjoying the thickness and bits of fruit from the bottom.