This is what is wrong with the world

Well, it is one of the things that are wrong. On a flight recently, I was served a light meal. In the meal-box was a small cup with a nice label on top: Crunchy Strawberry Yoghurt.

Now, most people would probably see this yummy combination and go for it. Me, being an avid reader, noticed the fine print "Ingredients on flip side". It never occurred to me that something as simple as yoghurt would have a lot of ingredients, so I HAD to investigate.

Most people would expect something like this to contain milk, some form of lactobacillus to make yoghurt, strawberries and maybe some biscuit/cracker-like ingredient for the crunch. Wrong. Here is the complete list of contents, and give yourself a pat on the back when you find the yoghurt...

Ingredients: Water, sugar, 13% strawberries, vegetable oil (coconut, palm kernel, palm, rape), wheat flour, glucose syrup, margarine (vegetables oil and fat from palm, palm kernel and rape), water, salt, emulsifier (E471, E475, E322), sugar, flavour, acid (E330), colour (E160a), cane sugar, skimmed milk powder, egg, 2% youghurt powder, malt dextrin, bread crumbs, invert sugar syrup, acid (E330), gelifier (E440), modified maize starch, flavouring, whole milk powder, salt, thickening agent (E407, E410, E412), emulsifier (E471), colouring (E160a, E120, E150d).

So inside the box was essentially a predominantly vegetable-fat based thing, with little room for anything natural. As for the strawberries, I am not sure if the 13% refer to the strawberry content of the red jam-like goo inside or if it refers to the strawberries' share of the weight or volume in the cup. From the looks of it, it is the strawberry content of the reddish goo.

What happened to good, old-fashioned yoghurt just being milk and bacteria??? Shame on you, SAS, for deciding to save money by buying something that is patently not youghurt, yet marketed as if it were the real thing.

One thing they do consistently right here in Nepal is yoghurt: You buy it in clay-bowls, and it is rich, creamy, unpasteurized, non-additive infested and so good that the kids eat it by only adding fresh fruit and berries - no sugar. And I'm sure it is cheaper than the stuff SAS buys from Holland.