Bega now owns Farmers Union.Farmers Union produces 'Greek Style'...

Bega now owns Farmers Union.

Farmers Union produces 'Greek Style' yogurt, all natural, made with just milk, cream and cultures. On the label you see 'Established 1888' and I've always thought 'what a great aussie company, making an all-natural product, they've been around for over 100 years, they must be doing something right.'

But Farmers Union now also produces a range of flavoured 'Greek Style' yogurts. The labels are almost identical to their original Greek Style yogurt - same format, same colours, same fonts, except they clearly say 'Passionfruit' or 'Mango'.

I thought 'Great, it'll be the same all-natural creamy yogurt, with a bit of fruit and sugar added.'

But I was wrong. It's a completely different formulation. And it's not all-natural.

Bega has taken the cream out of the recipe and replaced it with hydroxypropyl distarch phosphate, 1442, a powder produced in a lab. Legal in Australia but apparently on the glycemic index it's higher than white sugar.

Now as far as I'm concerned, Bega can do what it likes with its recipes. But in my view it's deceptive behaviour to alter the recipe so drastically and still label it and market it as exactly the same thing (though I note they carefully removed the words 'all natural' from the fruit yogurts label).

It makes me wonder if Bega is being sneaky with its products and labelling, where else might they be being sneaky? Consumers and investors be wary, imho.