For your Christmas food shop, choose a plain yoghurt if you want to season a dip or buffet dish yourself, or a flavoured one if you’re after a ready-to-serve dessert. If the type of milk or where it was made matters more, check the details for the exact product: “Greek-style” doesn’t guarantee it was made in Greece, and the word “matured” alone doesn’t tell you enough about the product.
For tzatziki, a sauce or individual dessert glasses, a plain yoghurt lets you choose the fruit or seasoning when you’re ready to serve. Lidl France, for example, suggests its Eridanous Greek-style yoghurt for both sweet and savoury dishes.
A flavoured yoghurt or one with a fruit layer is ideal when you don’t want to add anything yourself. E.Leclerc’s listing for Delisse yoghurt with a mango layer shows why it’s worth checking the ingredients and sugar content of the recipe you choose.
Depending on the product, the milk may come from cows or sheep, and the yoghurt may be made in France or Greece. Carrefour France and Auchan provide these details for their respective products, so check the pot you’re buying.
For your Christmas menu, start with how you plan to use the yoghurt, then compare the recipe and pack size of the exact product.
| Criterion | What to check | Who it matters to |
|---|---|---|
| Flavour and sugars | Compare the ingredients and sugars per 100 g in the exact plain and flavoured recipes you’re considering. | If I’m serving dessert without any preparation, I’d choose a yoghurt that’s already flavoured rather than a base to add toppings to. Around 42% of consumers would make their choice of recipe a priority. |
| Use and pack size | Check whether the yoghurt is plain, as well as the total quantity and number of pots. | If I’m making a sauce or serving several people, I look for a base I can season, in a pack size suited to the number of guests. Versatility would be the top criterion for around 25% of consumers. |
| Milk, ingredients and origin | Check the type of milk, country of manufacture and fat content per 100 g for the product you’ve chosen. | If I’m looking for sheep’s milk or a product made in Greece, “Greek-style” on its own doesn’t tell me what I need to know. Around 33% of consumers would put these characteristics ahead of other criteria. |
Auchan’s listings show 13 g of sugars per 100 g in its lemon recipe, compared with 3.8 g per 100 g in its plain recipe. These are two different recipes, not simply different pack sizes.
Compare the ingredients and the “sugars” line on the pots you’re considering. Choose a plain version if you’d rather decide what to add when you serve it.
Carrefour France lists a plain Carrefour Extra recipe made in France and a Carrefour Original recipe made in Greece. So the category name alone doesn’t tell you where the pot was made.
If origin matters to you, check the country of manufacture and the origin of the ingredients separately for the exact product.
Seeing a chilled yoghurt in a product selection doesn’t guarantee you’ll find it in your local shop when you do your Christmas food shopping.
Check availability with the shop or online before planning a recipe that needs that specific pot.
A long trip between shops means these chilled products spend more time out of the fridge.
Anses recommends picking up chilled products at the end of your shopping trip. If you have a long journey home, take an insulated bag and put the yoghurt in the fridge as soon as you arrive.
Portion-sized Greek-style yoghurts, including plain and flavoured options in the range shown by Carrefour France.
Carrefour Extra offers a plain recipe, while Carrefour Original has a 1 kg yoghurt made in Greece.
The Delisse range includes plain Greek-style yoghurts in several pack sizes, as well as a recipe with a mango layer.
The products listed by Auchan include plain and lemon Greek-style recipes, as well as one made with sheep’s milk.
Lidl France features Eridanous Greek-style yoghurt for enjoying plain or using in cooking, including in tzatziki.
Perle de Lait Nature may be worth comparing if you’re choosing a dairy dessert for its texture, but its name doesn’t classify it as Greek yoghurt.
No. Carrefour France lists a plain Carrefour Extra yoghurt made in France and a Carrefour Original yoghurt made in Greece. Check the country of manufacture on the listing or packaging for the product you choose.
Pick it up at the end of your shopping trip and put it in the fridge as soon as possible. Anses recommends limiting the time it spends out of the fridge; an insulated bag is useful if you have a long journey home.
The plain Carrefour Extra recipe and Auchan’s sheep’s milk recipe listed on their respective product pages contain milk; sheep’s milk is not a milk-free option. Check the ingredients and allergens on the label of the exact product.