Frequently Asked Questions

Balkan Style Yogurts are set-style Yogurts. The body of the Yogurt is firmer which you can “cut” with a spoon. The Yogurt will have a flat, smooth top and it will “stick” to the spoon. At times there may be liquid whey on the top.

Yogurt is a fermented product, resulting from the growth of Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus in warm milk. All of our Yogurts including the Astro Balkan style contain these two active cultures.

Yes – the bacterial cultures would be killed by normal cooking temperatures >175C.

Yogurt is a matrix of skim milk proteins, cultures, lactic acid and a small amount of lactose. This matrix appears solid but is in fact a relatively unstable structure. Excessive heating or vigorous stirring will break down the structure resulting in curdling or separation of the whey and protein compounds. Higher fat Yogurts are slightly more stable and will endure more abuse before breaking down

We don’t recommend it, because of the live cultures.

This is whey. Whey is a protein found naturally in milk. When the Yogurt curd forms, sometimes it is squeezed out of the “Yogurt gel” and floats to the top. It is of excellent nutritional value. If you would like to maximize your protein intake from the Yogurt, simply mix it back into the Yogurt and do not discard it.

Yogurt is made from cows’ milk that is pasteurized and then inoculated with lactic acid producing bacteria to make Yogurt. Although the milk is pasteurized and inoculated with good bacteria, some of the spoilage bacteria in the milk are not completely killed. Therefore, after the shelf life the product starts to physically break down and/or grow spoilage microorganisms, yeast and mould. We do not recommend eating any products past the Best Before Date not even for one day difference.

Lactase enzyme is added to break down the lactose into its two root components-glucose and galactose. The majority of people already have this enzyme naturally occurring in their digestive system to help break down lactose. It is the people who don’t produce this enzyme who are lactose intolerant.

There is 1.2mg of caffeine per 100grams of Yogurt.

The caramel colour is from the flavour preparation and it is a natural caramel colour.

The Sugar in Astro Yogurt is a refined and naturally occurring milk sugar – Lactose.

Cholesterol Free- as defined by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency- is a product that contains less than 3 mg of cholesterol per 100 g <15% of energy value from saturated fats and <2 g of fatty acids /serving.

Check the website for ingredient declaration.

We have more than one source of whey and there is the possibility that the whey is from a cheese that was produced with an animal enzyme. The whey and Yogurt are both heat-treated which destroys the enzyme.

All Astro Yogurts are considered gluten free. We recognize that gluten sensitivity is a concern for many consumers and all of our products are gluten free. The facilities that manufacture Astro products do not use any raw ingredients or materials that contain gluten.

Agar is a stabilizer and thickener that is transparent, odourless and tasteless and obtained from seaweed.

Yogurt is pasteurized before the bacteria are added. Raw milk in Canada must be pasteurized by law. All other dairy products undergo a heat process which warrants them to be safe for consumption for any Canadian consumers as per the Canadian Regulations. All of our manufacturing facilities are federally registered and regularly inspected by the government.

Lactase enzyme is produced by fermentation of a selected strain of yeast. Kluveromyceslactis.

It is a natural component of the milk.

The letter printed on the foil indicates the nozzle number of the filler. The packaging printer prints the nozzle letters A through F on some of the foil lids.

Yogurt is measured by weight, not by volume. While there is variation in filling during production, the average weight of any production lot must always meet or exceed the declared contents. We can assure you that Lactalis follows the mandated regulations.

For the multi-pack format the container material is #6 PS- Polystrene.

Addition of MSG as a flavour enhancer would require an ingredient declaration on the label.