The Big Yogurt Binge

The Bible tells us that Abraham fed it to his guests. Assyrians ate it for their health and, according to Pliny, Persian women believed it to be good for their skin. In Iran, the sour, thick fermented milk is called mast, and one of the most popular brands is "Mickey Mast." The Greeks know it as oxygala, and it is filmjolk in Sweden. Bulgarians have always had the reputation of being the world's greatest yogurt eaters but, thanks to the energies of a Paris company called Societe Danone, the French, of all people, are taking over the championship. Last year they consumed more than 1.8 billion quarter-pint pots (238 million quarts) of the stuff, and they will get down well over 2 billion potfuls in 1967.

An eccentric Russian scientist, Elie Metchnikoff, is basically responsible. Puzzled by the longevity of villagers in the backwoods of Bulgaria, he bent over his test tubes at the Pasteur Institute in Paris in the early 1900s and concluded that so many Bulgarians lived to be more than 100 because they ate lots of fermented milk. Their yogurt contained Bacillus bulgaricus, which, Metchnikoff decided, chased out the "wild, putrefying bacilli in our large intestine." He consumed untold gallons himself, discoursed profusely about what he believed to be its beneficial effects, and died at the age of 71, leaving behind a mere handful of French yogurt enthusiasts.

Flair for Marketing. That was before an enterprising Spaniard named Isaac Carasso began turning it out commercially during World War I. In 1929, in Paris, he opened a plant named Danone for his son Daniel, and called its product "the Dessert of Happy Digestion." Success was modest until the mid-1950s, when Danone caught the public fancy. In 1958, in the Paris suburb of Plessis-Robinson, Danone opened the world's largest yogurt factory, where 350 workers are able to turn out 1,600,000 pots (211,000 quarts) of yogurt a day, seven times as much as the largest U.S. manufacturer.

Today Danone controls 60% of the yogurt market in Paris, and 40% in all of France. Now, with 1967 sales forecast at $56 million, up from $9,000,000 only seven years ago, Danone has announced plans to merge with Gervais, fourth largest cheesemaker in France. The new corporation will be the largest French company engaged exclusively in the food business.

Horrified Epicures. French doctors still prescribe it as a health food: it is low in fat--a prime consideration for liver-conscious Frenchmen--and high in protein and minerals. But yogurt has long since transcended the fad-food stigma. Though epicures gag at the thought, some Paris restaurants serve it at dessert time, right alongside the Brie, Chevre and Camembert.

Danone was the first yogurt maker to introduce flavors, now has 25 varieties ranging from coffee to cassis. The flavored varieties are a favorite with children and with busy housewives hurrying through lunch. Even recalcitrant husbands are catching on. "They used to think that eating yogurt was somehow humiliating," says a Danone executive. "Now they are eating more and more. By having plain yogurt and not the flavored kind, they maintain their dignity."

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