SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
CULTURE WAR CHOBANI YOGURT flap pushed scientists’ emotional buttons In response to the proscience to start a movement from the outcry, Chobani’s Twitter feed breakfast table. But when the turned into a stream of more chemist and start-up comthan 100 apologies. Some pany founder peeled back of the company’s tweets, the foil lid on a container for example one that of Chobani Greek yogurt claimed that the yogurt recently, she got angry. was “chemical-free,” The lid reads, “Naonly further raised reture got us to 100 calosearchers’ ire. ries, not scientists,” and In a statement provided promotes a Chobani social to C&EN, Chobani said it media campaign by adding has discontinued the lid. Its the hashtag #howmatmessage “was not intendters. Klemm vented her ed as an indictment of Dr. Piper Klemm @piperjklemm rage on Twitter. Then, science or scientists but “Nature got us to 100 calories, she went about her day. a celebration of nature,” not scientists” -chobani grrrrr When she next checked the statement reads. in, she was in the eye of a Companies referring social media firestorm. to products as natural are Scientists from all disciplines had rallied nothing new. But Klemm to Klemm’s cause. Chemists, entomolothinks she knows why gists, and programmers alike were sharing this particular markether photo of the yogurt lid and angrily deing faux pas went viral. nouncing Chobani. Some scientists engaged “Most of the things that in a little “hashtag activism” and turned say ‘chemical-free’ don’t the company’s #howmatters hashtag into attack scientists directly. something it did not expect. They reminded I read this lid, and it felt the firm just how much science goes like an attack on me personally.” into mass-producing and distributing its “I felt like I was being judged by my 100-calorie yogurt cups. freaking yogurt,” agrees Gwen Pearson, the PIPER KLEMM
PIPER KLEMM DID NOT set out
network manager for the Organization of Biological Field Stations. Pearson regularly purchases Chobani. So when she heard the news, she went straight to her refrigerator and began opening containers. She found one of the infamous lids on her third try. “It’s clear that the marketing team just didn’t think through all the angles for this campaign,” says Brigham Young University chemistry graduate student Chad Jones, who covered the fiasco on his podcast, “The Collapsed Wavefunction.” Up to a point, the campaign was understandable, he says. It promoted the “natural” aspect of Chobani’s yogurt, something many consumers find appealing. “Hopefully Chobani’s learned some lessons that will spread through the industry,” Jones adds, “but that’s probably too optimistic.” Klemm and Pearson both think that the situation was a success for science communication. Everyday people, Klemm says, want to talk about everyday aspects of science that she was never taught how to articulate. Concerns about food are at or near the top of the list. Chobani’s flub, she says, was an excuse for scientists to enter that conversation. Chobani will send a free yogurt to any scientist who contacts the company at www.chobani.com/care. But Pearson, now an exChobani customer, offered this pointed response: “It’s going to take more than 99 cents’ worth of free yogurt to win me back.”—CARMEN DRAHL
“I felt like I was being judged by my freaking yogurt.”
HOW IS YOGURT MADE? Scientists have perfected a route to high-quality, mass-produced yogurt. Add sweeteners, texture enhancers such as hydrocolloids (pectin, locust bean gum, spray-dried milk powder)
Milk
Homogenize, pasteurize Centrifuge-like water removal (for Greek yogurt); remove lumps, cool
What Happens During Fermentation? Microbes produce lactic acid. pH drops from ~6.8 to ~4.6 Micelles of casein become destabilized, leading to aggregation and gel formation Ferment
SOURCE: KJ Burrington, Center for Dairy Research, U of Wisconsin, Madison
CEN.ACS.ORG
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JUNE 23, 2014
SHU TTERSTOCK (MILK , HOMOGENIZE AND PASTEURIZE, FERMENT, YOGU RT)/ SCIEN CESOU RCE (YOGURT CULTURES)
Add yogurt cultures
