Yoplait and Go-Gurt just got a new owner, who will review ingredients amid RFK Jr.’s edicts

Top dairymaker Lactalis says it will assess ingredients in newly acquired yogurt brands like Yoplait and Go-Gurt as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Movement” campaigns for changes in the U.S. food supply, including reducing sugar and removing artificial ingredients.

The company, which completed its acquisition of General Mills’s U.S. yogurt business Monday, will start discussions on ingredients in the next 30 days, said Lactalis U.S. Yogurt CEO Bill Cassidy. The deal was first announced last September.

“That will be one of the first things that we will be doing after this deal closes, is sitting down with them to review their ways of doing business,” Cassidy said in an interview. The companies weren’t permitted to have many of those conversations prior to the deal closing, “but you can see what’s going on in the industry as a whole,” Cassidy said, referencing recent commitments from General Mills and Kraft Heinz to remove food dyes from their products.

“It’s all about this movement for more simplicity in your products. There’s more of a groundswell with younger and younger consumers,” Cassidy said. “They are inspecting that ingredient list and there’s many no-nos that they will now avoid. Companies are listening, and clearly in Washington there’s a big push for that as well.”

Kennedy has blamed food ingredients from artificial dyes to seed oils for the country’s poor health outcomes, such as obesity and heart disease, though not all of his stances are fully backed by science. Still, consumers and companies are reacting. Nestlé SA and Conagra Brands Inc. committed last week to removing synthetic dyes, which have long been criticized by health advocates for making ultraprocessed foods more appealing, especially to children. Meanwhile, a recent study found more than 70% of US consumers believe poor food quality is linked to obesity, though fewer than half of Americans actually avoid ultraprocessed foods, according to consulting firm Ketchum.

Yogurt products – particularly those with high protein, low sugar and simple labels – have experienced higher demand, aided in part by the rise of weight-loss drugs. Inflation-pressed shoppers seeing yogurt as an affordable protein are also increasingly favoring larger 32-ounce tubs, Cassidy said.

Lactalis is also encouraging more dairy farmers to produce organically, noting that the company’s “number one challenge has been just security of supply for organic milk,” he said. Less than 4% of the US cow herd was certified organic in 2021, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

The deal is “very complimentary to our current portfolio” and poises Lactalis to benefit from rising US yogurt demand, bringing the company’s share of the category from roughly 7% to 20%, said Lactalis USA Chief Executive Officer Esteve Torrens.

The acquired business, which includes about 1,000 employees and two manufacturing facilities in Tennessee and Michigan, will operate as Midwest Yogurt, a new division of Lactalis USA. Lactalis USA’s other yogurts, like Stonyfield Organic and siggi’s, will continue to operate under Lactalis US Yogurt. France-based parent company Groupe Lactalis is the world’s largest dairy company.