They put WHAT in THIS??!!! [Muller Fruit Up Yogurt]

[Vidute]

Ok, so a new yogurt appeared on my grocer's shelf, Muller Fruit Up. Great, something new to try! That is, until I read the ingredients and found....Tilapia....Yes, Tilapia! In yogurt!!

I am an adventurous eater. I like yogurt and I like fish; however, I do not like tilapia (poor sanitation in the fish ponds), and, I really don't want fish in my fruit yogurt.

Have you ever read the ingredients on a product, done a double-take, and thought "WTH"?!!

[whyrusurprised]

I don't know why you would be surprised that tilapia is in yogurt. What would you do if I told you that pig marrow is in most yogurts and jello? That's how they make "gelatin" which is why I don't eat it. If you read the ingredients on the fruitup yogurt you will see that it says "kosher gelatin"--they make it out of tilapia instead of pig marrow that's all. I'm kosher and don't eat pork or shellfish because, according to the Bible, those type foods are not meant to be consumed by humans--they are unclean to our bodies. I would much rather eat kosher gelatin made out of tilapia.

[coll]

They're all good to me, I would eat any of them rather than cornstarch, which just tastes nasty in yogurt.

[ank76]

Ok- I am glad that other people were shocked to see that Tilapia was in the yogurt. Being a fish and seafood fan for 35 years, I just developed an allergy to all of it. I had the yogurt today. It was delicious. I never thought to read the ingredients of yogurt being that fish and seafood is typically not in it. Sadly enough I had a minor allergic reaction to this stuff. Couldn't figure out why until I saw the label. I am a little furious after drinking Benedryl all day. I now learned that I have to READ ALL LABELS with caution even when fish/ seafood is not a suspect ingredient. This really stinks.

[Vidute]

hope you're ok, now, ank.

[kwarner75]

Ok I have to make another comment... I suggest that you start reading all your labels from now on because I can think of other foods that also contain Tilapia gellatin. Jiff Omega-3 peanut butter also contains Anchovy and Sardine oil. Pretty much every brand of jello... Jello Brand Jello, Royal Jello, Great Value Jello, Disney jello,...

[ferret]

I'm pretty sure Jello and other gel brands contains mammal-sourced gelatin.

[Vidute]

i do read all labels, hence noticing the tilapia. anchovies, sardines, are ok for me, but tilapia isn't. and you won't find anyone using tilapia for its omega 3s as it doesn't have much; however, it is high in omega 6 which current research has found to be harmful. :)

[DeppityDawg]

There won't be omegas of any sort in tilapia gelatin.

[kwarner75]

I don't like fish but I have to tell you that I bought this last night and the yogurt is the creamiest yogurt I have ever had and the fruit mousse on top tastes fantastic.

[tastesgoodwhatisit]

I think this is more of a case of accurate and transparent labelling than weird ingredients. If you've eating kosher yoghurt with gelatin as an ingredient, you were most likely already eating something made from fish bones.

Think of the difference between saying "gelatin" and "cow bones and and skin" on a label.

Read up on fining ingredients for wine if you want to get turned off of eating wine, too. :-)

[firebird3954]

i just discovered this yogurt and love the peach passion fruit. after reading the ingredients though i tossed the rest out of the fridge. the tilapia is a total turn off, even if it is just used in the gelatin. yuck!

[sunshine842]

make sure you read the labels on all the other yogurt you buy and look into how those ingredients are made -- specifically red food coloring and gelatine.

You might decide fish gelatin isn't so bad afterall.

[Vidute]

for me it's not the fish gelatin, it's the tilapia, itself, or, i should say, where and how the tilapia farmed.

[godmother22]

I did this tonight. I swear! My girlfrined told me their is tilapia in this. I thought, you're koo-koo. Until I broght it upstairs and looked at it and I was like, "I'll be damned."

[Vidute]

not all surprises are pleasant!

[cgarner]

I just wish I had found this conversation (or at least read the lable closer) before I bought it

I turned my stomach, I know I couldn't detect any flavor of fish and I had no textural issues... it's just the "thought" of eating tilapia in my yogurt... put me off

[sunshine842]

don't read the label about carmine food coloring or non-vegetarian gelatin.

[mkbr2012]

They use tilapia to make gelatin because it's Kosher, where the traditional means of getting gelatin from is not and gross too!

Wikipedia:

Gelatin is a mixture of peptides and proteins produced by partial hydrolysis of collagen extracted from the skin, boiled crushed horn, hoof and bones, connective tissues, organs and some intestines of animals such as domesticated cattle, chicken, pigs, and horses.

[Vidute]

Kosher gelatin can be made from fish bones, beef, Japanese insinglass, agar agar, carrageenan, and Irish moss. There are options other than fish for kosher-dairy.

[coney with everything]

how could it be kosher if the gelatin is from beef? Can't mix meat and dairy. Fish swings both ways.

[sunshine842]

actually fish is neither, so works with both.

[DeppityDawg]

Meat and dairy products can lose their meat/dairy status through certain types of processing. Kosher beef gelatin is considered neutral, like fish, with (as usual) differences in detail depending on who you ask. The problem is that kosher beef gelatin much harder to make and so less available and more expensive than kosher gelatin from fish. See the following post, for example (quoted from one of the many many explanations on the web):
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/2734...

[coney with everything]

did not know that about neutral kosher beef gelatin. I learn something new every day!

[trolley]

time for new yogurt! try the brand Noosa. They sell them mostly at Whole Foods and select Targets. The best yogurt ever. i had a sample from their booth at a farmers market in Boulder, Co. There were hoards of people crowding the booth so like a good obeying cattle i followed. Really great stuff. only drawback is that it's not lowfat but not as fatty as full fat greek yogurts.

[Vidute]

Noosa is good, but it still has milk protein powder. The best/tastiest grocery yogurt I've tried is Maple Hill Creamery. Made from grass-fed milk with no fillers, stabilizers or milk protein powder

[trolley]

Maple Hill is also very good. yes, no fillers and just yogurt but i love the creaminess of Noosa. at least it's not tilapia!

[coney with everything]

other drawback to Noosa is that it's double the price of Mueller or even Fage. But it is tasty!

[Alison030177]

Hhmmm... I was also eating a cup of Peach Passion Früt Up, when I stumbled across this. Almost wish I hadn't been so curious as to see if this was European Style Yogurt.
I would prefer Fish Gelatin to cow hooves any day. Not to mention this is one of the best yogurts I've come across. It is quite fantastic actually, fish gel and all.
I've learned not to go digging to much into what is allowed in foods I like. I've only been horrified by what I've found.

[westsidegal]

you beat me.
i thought i was observant when i found out that dome brands of the jarred jams and preserves on the grocer's shelt contains artificial color and artificial flavor in addition to sugar.

the gelatin thing beats my experience by a lot.
p.s. i returned the jar of preserves and they gave me a full refund

[sunshine842]

Y'all -- regular gelatin is made with cow's hooves, bones, offal, and boiled hide. How, exactly, is that worse than something made from fish?

Other than the squick factor that it says "tilapia" other than "gelatin" -- what if the other brands said "cow hide and hooves" on the label?

I can't stand yogurt with gelatin, anyway (If I want to eat jello, I will....) -- so it's a non-issue with me from the get-go.

[Ruthie789]

Once the gelatin is tranformed from the above it looks so neutralized we would not know its source, assuming the tilapia is the same. We also have to ask what is gelatin also found in? All transformed foods are questionable in terms of the preservatives in them, but we do eat them. Take the humble Twinkie as an example! I do not like tilapia, do not like the idea of farmed fish at all.

[sunshine842]

Gelatin is not a preservative.

[Ruthie789]

Yes agree. I should have said additives to foods, referring to all contents in foods not just gelatin.

[Tripeler]

Ruthie,
Imagine the sheer horror of Tilapia-stuffed Twinkies.

Total Science Fiction!

[Ruthie789]

No one should dare mess with Twinkies!

[mpjmph]

Exactly. Gelatin from farmed tilapia is no different than gelatin from factory farmed cattle. If you don't like gelatin in yogurt, that's fine. Objecting to tilapia gelatin while accepting the presence of beef gelatin elsewhere just doesn't make sense. I do wonder why they labeled it as tilapia when products with beef gelatin just say gelatin. Why not label it as fish gelatin, or kosher gelatin.

[sunshine842]

I kind of wondered that myself....seems Mueller is painting a bullseye right on their own forehead.

There's that very fine line between "truth in labeling' and "freaking people out"

[DeppityDawg]

They do label it as "kosher gelatin", actually, if this image from their website corresponds to what appears on the product packaging:
http://mullerquaker.com/Images/Produc...

The tilapia is mentioned in the "contains" statement, which is there to alert people with allergies and other dietary restrictions. As I said earlier, I suspect that the company may not have a lot of choice about what to list there.

[sunshine842]

I guess the easy thing to do would be to check other kosher gelatin-based products and see what it says there.

[DeppityDawg]

Here's some organic milk:
http://www.organicvalley.coop/products/milk/omega-3-milk/

And here's a yogurt that contains sardines, anchovy, and tilapia:
http://www.wegmans.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10002&productId=398834

Keep in mind that some products may have non-compliant labeling… Even easier, and more direct, is reading the relevant regulation:
http://www.fda.gov/food/labelingnutri...

"the word `Contains', followed by the name of the food source from which the major food allergen is derived, is printed immediately after or is adjacent to the list of ingredients (in a type size no smaller than the type size used in the list of ingredients)"

"The term `major food allergen' means any of the following: (1) Milk, egg, fish (e.g., bass, flounder, or cod), Crustacean shellfish (e.g., crab, lobster, or shrimp), tree nuts (e.g., almonds, pecans, or walnuts), wheat, peanuts, and soybeans."

"in the case of a tree nut, fish, or Crustacean shellfish, the term `name of the food source from which the major food allergen is derived' means the name of the specific type of nut or species of fish or Crustacean shellfish."

[sunshine842]

I think I'm bugged more by sardines and anchovies!

I get the clarity for the sake of allergies...

...but there are people who will be squicked out by discovering that vegetarian gelatin comes from seaweed, too...

[kayester]

the sample I got this morning lists "kosher gelatin" in the ingredients and after the ingredients, on its own line in bold face states "CONTAINS: MILK, WHEAT, TILAPIA."

[coll]

I think I bought this brand a few months ago when it was 10 for $10. It wasn't this Fruit Up stuff though. But I was really disappointed when I saw it listed cornstarch as an ingredient, and you could REALLY taste it in there.

It was possibly Muller, or maybe Mueller? Wonder if I have one left in the fridge?

[toasts]

I think the worst ingredient I've ever noticed was L-cysteine when I was buying bread. I didn't think much of it, assuming it was probably some kind of added vitamin for fortified breads, like vitamin A palmitate, until it showed up on the news as a dough conditioner made from human hair and duck feathers.

And your discovery is now more incentive to make my own yogurt from now on! It must be fun being a chemist in a lab. Where do they come up with this kind of stuff?

[Vidute]

I emailed the CEO at Muller and received a reply stating that tilapia was the only way they could get the desired texture and make the yogurt kosher. The reply stated they are working on finding an alternative to the tilapia. Uh-huh.

[maipho]

Funny as I am reading this post, I am eating the Peach Passion Fruit Yogurt by Frut Up. I checked the ingredients and low and behold it does say tilapia. Well I don't taste a hint of fish, or a textural difference but this yogurt is yummy!!! I will admit I am not much of a yogurt fan but this stuff is good.

[sunshine842]

You should probably all pop over to wikipedia and read what "regular" gelatin is made of.

Fish might sound better.

[meatn3]

I found a blogger who reported that a company spokesperson told her the tilapia is used for texture.

I do find this choice very odd. Why choose a controversial ingredient which is also a common allergen when there are so many other possible texture agents?

[Tripeler]

Maybe because Tilapia is one of the cheapest food items available anywhere on earth?
Hmmmm, with the texture of...fabulous farmed fish!
Just what I demand in my dairy products!

[meatn3]

Agree that availability and price probably drive the choice. Still seems to have more negatives than the cost savings warrants. I could see someone never dreaming they needed to check yogurt for the addition of fish byproducts having a severe allergic reaction. They also have lost potential vegetarian customers too.

[Tripeler]

It just makes no freakin' sense. I shouldn't have to read a yogurt label to make sure there is no freakin' farmed FISH in it for chrissakes.

[kubasd]

+1 I find this just disgusting and nonsensical... straight up crazy...

[LindaWhit]

+ a lot more. This is just bizarre!

[DeppityDawg]

On their Facebook page, too: "FrütUp contains a slight amount of natural, kosher gelatin from tilapia to help maintain the light and airy texture of the fruit mousse".

I guess I would also prefer a yogurt with no added gelatin, but if they've decided the recipe needs it, then I applaud them for putting the full information on the package. (Although I can imagine that it wasn't their own free decision, but consumer protection laws.) If you have a specific food sensitivity or restriction, or if you just want to know what's in your food and where it comes from, wouldn't you rather see "tilapia" in the ingredients list, and not just "gelatin" or "E441"?

[kubasd]

I agree that it's nice that they have it in plain writing, it's the inclusion in the first place I have a problem with.

[TeRReT]

Yeah its probably gelatin, or an auto correct of tapioca gone awry. But there is tilapia gelatin so its probably that.

[Tripeler]

TILAPIA? That is totally weird! It has to be some kind of mistake.
Unless...they used a fish-based gelatin made from Tilapia.

Still... entirely strange.