Is my tzatziki mislabeled?

April 16, 2009 10:54 AM

Is my tzatziki mislabeled, or is it actually made without yogurt and primarily corn syrup? Because that would be so gross.

I have this tub of tzatziki that I bought at an Indian grocery. It says "Homemade Tzaziki, Greek sauce with fresh cucumber." The ingredients are then listed in this order: corn syrup, cucumber, garlic, palm oil, buttermilk, vinegar, lemon juice and stabilizer."
It's white, it tastes like a slightly industrial though not especially sweet yogurt, and I'm assuming they just forgot to list yogurt. Right? I mean, you can't fake yogurt with corn syrup, right?

posted by poxuppit to food & drink (16 comments total)

No, of course you can't fake yogurt using corn syrup. Or cucumber for that matter. Sometimes I've seen yogurts where only the added ingredients are listed; I would imagine they assume you know it's mostly yogurt...
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 10:56 AM on April 16

Yes, you can fake it. Non-dairy coffee creamer is corn syrup. Add some water, xanthan gum, maltodextrin and a bittering agent and you can make a fair (and not terribly good) yogurt facsimile.
posted by zerokey at 11:01 AM on April 16

What country are you in? Ingredients lists are governed by labeling requirements most places. In the US, an ingredient list for packaged yogurt will not list "yogurt" -- it will give the stuff the yogurt is made from, for example "cultured pasteurized organic nonfat milk." If the stuff is packaged in India, I don't know what the ingredient lists usually look like. But I don't think your ingredient list is in error. Corn syrup probably is the top ingredient. But there may still be "real" yogurt, made from buttermilk(??).
posted by grobstein at 11:02 AM on April 16

Interesting. What brand is it? I'm guessing that they broke down the yogurt into its primary ingredients, which in this case must be buttermilk, vinegar, stabilizer ... and corn syrup. I'm not a food chemist, though, so I'm not sure how that exactly makes sense.
posted by jabberjaw at 11:02 AM on April 16

Probably not mislabeled. There's no yogurt (as you know it) in there. Seems like the corn syrup, buttermilk and vinegar together are substituting for it. Gross, but not unheard of.

Mediterranean Kuzina Tzatziki Sauce
Sauce Base (Water, Partially Hydrogenated Palm Kernel Oil, Buttermilk Powder, Corn Syrup, Sour Cream Stabilizer (Modified Food Starch, Sodium Phosphate, Sodium Citrate, Guar Gum, Carrageenan and Locust Bean Gum), Sodium Caseinate, Vegetable Mono- and Di-glycerides, Salt, Potassium Sorbate, Sodium Citrate, Natural Flavoring and Cultures), Cucumbers, Water Contains 2% or less of: Soybean Oil, Salt, Garlic Powder, Vinegar, Lemon Juice Concentrate, Xanthan Gum & Stabilizer (Sugar, Corn Starch, Agar, and Cream of Tartar and Salt).
posted by iconomy at 11:03 AM on April 16

The order of ingredients is the order of highest content to lowest. So its more corn syrup than garlic. Your yogurt is made from the buttermilk. Sounds fine, but fatty.
posted by damn dirty ape at 11:04 AM on April 16

I was astonished to learn here that yogurt -- skim milk yogurt -- has 8 calories per gram whereas HFCS (search for "syrup") has 2.8 calories per gram. So using it is a way to make the calorie count lower (and more appealing) as well. Ugh.
posted by kate blank at 11:07 AM on April 16

poxuppit - now what you asked, but just make your own - it takes 5 minutes and you'll NEVER buy from a store again:

My tzatziki recipe:

plain non-fat yogurt
1/4 cuke grated
1tbs coarse ground black/white pepper
2tbs garlic powder (fresh is better)
1tbs onion powder
1tsp dill
3-4 big squirts of lime juice
1/4tsp olive oil

for a real treat, blend in some avocado

blend well and put in fridge covered for a few hours to let the flavors settle.
posted by zerokey at 11:09 AM on April 16 [34 favorites]

I bought this in NYC, at Kalustyan's. It's clearly made there, and the slapdash label hasn't got that official "nutrition facts" chart or anything. I'd like to think it was just assumed that yogurt is an ingredient, but the comparison to non-dairy creamer scares me.
posted by poxuppit at 11:10 AM on April 16

The order of ingredients is the order of highest content to lowest. So its more corn syrup than garlic. Your yogurt is made from the buttermilk. Sounds fine, but fatty.

Tzatziki is almost all yogurt, and this stuff is almost all corn syrup. So unless the labeling requirements are non-U.S.-style the "yogurt" in this is made from corn syrup (with a little buttermilk/vinegar/lemon juice for the tang). Doesn't sound fine to me.

Kill it. Kill it with fire.
posted by madmethods at 11:11 AM on April 16 [5 favorites]

kate blank, are you sure you read that right? Searching for "yogurt" at that link shows that skim milk yogurt has 0.56 calories per gram. 8 calories per gram is something you can pretty much only achieve with pure fat.

As to the original question, it's very likely that you could fake yogurt with a judicious mix of corn syrup, palm oil, milk solids and "stabilizer." I think fat-free half-and-half takes a similar approach. Food science can do amazing and disturbing things.
posted by fermion at 11:21 AM on April 16 [2 favorites]

Sounds like they used the buttermilk to give the tang of yogurt and loaded it with corn syrup for flavor. Sounds like a cheaper way to do it and a grosser way. too.
posted by otherwordlyglow at 11:21 AM on April 16

Why don't you just call Kalustyan's?
posted by iconomy at 11:39 AM on April 16

You mentioned it says Homemade Tzaziki, Greek sauce with fresh cucumber.

Notice that there is no mention of "yogurt" in that description.
posted by chez shoes at 12:18 PM on April 16 [1 favorite]

I think fat-free half-and-half takes a similar approach.

Tangential, but related if this is what's going on with the tzatziki - I saw fat free half'n'half, so I looked at the ingredients label. Corn syrup was high on the list so I said to msyelf "Corn Syrup? In my half'n'half?! Eff that ess. Right in the ay!" and just got the regular stuff. Holy crap.
posted by owtytrof at 12:28 PM on April 16

Wow. A bunch of people seem to like my recipe! I forgot to add that, the best yogurt to use is a nonfat strained yogurt or a cow's milk labneh. It also work VERY well with skyr, but it becomes more of a spread than a dip or sauce. It's good with run of the mill American style yogurt, but AMAZING when you use the thick stuff!
posted by zerokey at 1:54 PM on April 16