Yogurtland National Frozen Yogurt Day

30 November, 2011

"Food and food waste should not be left in an alarming condition," Gail E. Ruggles, president and CEO of the National Frozen Yogurt Association (NFYA), said. "Yogurt accounts for one out of every four pieces of human food waste produced every year and the product made from milk has the second-largest volume of vegetable ingredients in the nation."

According to the NFYA's 2010 Global Food Waste Analytics Report, just under half (47%) of the yogurt making mass consumed globally each year in the United States could and should be diverted from landfill and converted into a vegetable based food product that is low-fat, naturally high in fiber and nutrients and can be produced within the day.

Yogurts contribute to $1 billion dollars annually to U.S. farmer’s markets.

Yogurt production is the second largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. They also need refrigeration to keep the yogurt cold enough to keep from transforming to butter and milk fat during storage.

Globally, there are over 900 million pounds of raw milk and yogurt now being produced each year. In 2001, about 20% of the country's yogurt and milk was eaten raw.

In 2003, the NFYA reported the industry "was trying to reduce its food waste to 50,000 tons of raw milk processed and still accounted for 40% of the nation's milk production."

A separate industry report in 2009 reported that the industry produced 4.6 billion pounds or 58% of the 500 billion pounds of raw milk currently consumed in the United States. The NFYA believes the best policy of reducing food waste continues to be to sell it back to farmers.

"Yogurt has a strong environmental track record and represents a unique opportunity to recycle on-farm farming methods without having to make use of costly synthetic fertilizers and insecticides," the NFYA said. "This is especially important since many facilities are turning away natural produce, and the current regulations to control market place growth eliminate substantial food sourcing alternatives to market."

To reduce food waste, "it’s important that farmers be able to get fresh sustainable produce to market," said Mary Fortuna, president of the Community Action Center of Greater St.