I eat yogurt several times a week for breakfast because of its probiotic benefits. When I was recently shopping at a different Aldi store that I don’t often visit, I had trouble finding the organic whole milk yogurt tub I usually buy. I settled on an alternative: Friendly Farms Light Nonfat Plain Yogurt.
I prefer to buy whole milk yogurt over nonfat or lowfat yogurt because science is on the side of whole milk for its metabolic benefits and omega-3 content, among other things. But when you just need some yogurt, any yogurt, even nonfat will do in a pinch.
Friendly Farms Light Nonfat Plain Yogurt cost $1.69 for a 32-oz. container at the time of publication. It’s a Regular Buy, which means it’s on shelves all year. It comes in a vanilla flavor as well, but that has added sugar, and for breakfast purposes I try to avoid sugary yogurts that are more like dessert.
Friendly Farms Light Nonfat Plain Yogurt nutrition information and ingredients. (Click to enlarge.)
This yogurt has Vitamins A and D added and claims is has 33% fewer calories than regular lowfat yogurt. The back of the container says that “regular lowfat yogurt” has 150 calories and 2 grams of fat per serving, while this yogurt has 90 calories and no fat per serving.
One container has about five servings, with one 2/3-cup serving netting you 90 calories, 0 grams of total fat, 120 mg of sodium (5% DV), 15 grams of total carbohydrates (5% DV), 0 grams of dietary fiber, 8 grams of total sugars, 0 grams of added sugars, and 7 grams of protein.
Ingredients are cultured pasteurized Grade A nonfat milk, modified food starch, whey protein concentrate (to maintain freshness), Vitamin A Palmitate, and Vitamin D3.
The container does not list what kinds of live active cultures are in this yogurt. (My usual Simply Nature whole milk organic yogurt from Aldi does list the cultures.)
For those looking out for allergens, not surprisingly, this contains milk.
I ate this yogurt in my usual way: sweetened with a drizzle of honey and mixed with fruit and granola or sliced almonds. It is a little on the runnier side, but not bad. It tastes how I would expect a plain yogurt to taste, and it tastes similar to my usual organic whole milk yogurt. I’ll be sticking with whole milk yogurt when I can find it, but this is not a bad substitute when the whole milk option is not available.
The Verdict:
Friendly Farms Light Nonfat Plain Yogurt is an economical way to get some no-added-sugar yogurt into your diet. It does not come with some of the benefits of whole milk yogurt, but it’s fine if you just want some yogurt.
Friendly Farms low-fat or nonfat yogurt is what I have been buying at Aldi and have assumed I was getting some good probiotics for my gut.
If there is no mention of live cultures in the Friendly Farms Low-fat yogurt it leads me to believe that there are none or just a trace or very inconsistent. Do you think this is a logical assessment?
I believe there are No probiotics in Aldi plain yogurt. I will not buy it !!! There is no label of live cultures on the container.
Just noticed a strange taste of Aldi Vanilla Nonfat/Light Yogurt, the aftertaste of artificial sweeteners is overwhelming, just too much of it for me. I can only tolerate a little bit of that so I was wondering why I haven’t noticed it before? Well, I found out that they(Friendly Farms/Aldi) changed some ingredients, probably as cost cutting measure, but now this product tastes awfully. They used to add sugar to it, if I remember well it was listed as 3rd of 4th ingredient, now it’s gone. That sugar was probably the reason that the yogurt tasted better by masking the bad taste of other artificial sweeteners.
No more vanilla low fat yogurt from Aldi for me and this container goes to waste.
Here are all the ingredients listed on the 32oz Aldi vanilla yogurt in question:
Cultured Pasteurized Nonfat Milk
Water
Modified Corn Starch
Less than 2% of: Kosher Gelatin, Vanilla, Natural Flavors, Sucralose, Acesulfame Potassium, Sodium Citrate, Live and Active Cultures. Contains Milk.
Calories 70(per 170g), Cholesterol 5mg(2%), Sodium 75mg(3%), Total Carbs 12g(4%), Tot. Sugars 7g, Protein 5g. Viitamin D -none, Calcium 180mg(15%), Iron -none, Potassium 230%(4%)
Product codes: 30 Jun 2021 00:14:59 PLT#36-1287
oh… there is that Aldi slogan on the side “Aldi Twice as Nice – Guarantee” I’d say: not nice at all lowering quality and customer’s expectations of products sold under an old label and price.
It has also a ‘trust’ effect, now I’m going to be more inquisitive about the things I buy at Aldi to avoid trowing it into garbage.
Smart not to purchase Aldi yogurt. The ingredients also in question are Water? (No one adds water to yogurt unless they’re using powdered milk), and “real” yogurt needs no stabilizers,= No modified starch, No gelatins. Aldi’s Yogurts are Horrible- more like pudding.
I eat also yogurt and I like it!!!