PETALUMA, Calif., March 11, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Straus Family Creamery, the first certified organic creamery in the United States, introduces two new organic Greek yogurts – Whole Milk Vanilla and Lowfat Plain – at the 36th annual Natural Products Expo West and Engredea, the world’s largest natural, organic and healthy products show. These two additions expand Straus’ organic Greek yogurt line to four products. Straus also offers 9 SKUs of European style yogurt including Plain, Vanilla, Maple and Blueberry-Pomegranate.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/3e8c7d75-8047-4dac-8535-37e3b2644735
“We’ve received very positive feedback about our organic European style yogurts which we launched in the 1990s. Our Greek yogurt line was created to give our customers additional choices of thicker and higher protein Greek offerings. All of our yogurts are crafted with organic milk and active, live cultures and without any thickeners or stabilizers,” Straus Family Creamery Founder and Chief Executive Officer Albert Straus said. “We incubate our yogurt in stainless-steel vats and fill our recyclable plastic containers with cooled yogurt. Similar to our European style, our Greek yogurts are slowly cultured and vat-set, but the Greeks are carefully strained to create a thicker texture. “
According to recent SPINS data, Greek and “origin” yogurts continue to grow in the natural channel with 2016 sales growth of eight percent nationally. In the northern California market, the rate of growth was even higher at 11 percent. Both consumers and chefs have helped drive rapid expansion of the Greek yogurt category over the last several years creating more demand at retail and restaurants.
At this year’s Natural Products Expo West and Engredea, Straus Family Creamery was awarded a Supplier Award for pioneering and exhibiting leadership in the organic dairy industry. United Natural Foods, the country’s largest organic and natural foods distributor, presented the award at their annual supplier session. Earlier this year, Albert Straus was awarded a Vision Leadership Award by the Specialty Food Association for spearheading the organic milk movement in the United States in the early 1990s.
Straus Family Creamery has a longstanding commitment to sustaining family farming. When Albert Straus converted his family’s dairy to organic production in 1994, becoming the first certified organic dairy west of the Mississippi, he pioneered a model that reflects the true costs of milk production and promotes sustainable land stewardship. Founding the Creamery the same year, Straus sought to create a market for local, organic milk, and develop a community of organic dairy farmers in the region. Today, nearly 90 percent of the dairy farms in Marin and Sonoma Counties are certified organic. Straus Family Creamery continues to make business decisions based on its mission to help sustain family farms, revitalize rural communities and protect the environment.
About Straus Family Creamery
Based in Marshall, CA, Straus Family Creamery is a Northern California, certified organic creamery offering milk, cream, yogurt, butter, sour cream, ice cream, and a variety of wholesale and specialty dairy products distributed throughout the Western United States. The Creamery makes minimally-processed dairy products from organic milk supplied by family farms in Marin and Sonoma Counties, including the Straus dairy, which is the first certified organic dairy farm west of the Mississippi River. Straus Family Creamery sustains collaborative relationships with the family farms that supply it milk, offering stable prices and predictability in what can otherwise be a volatile marketplace. Learn more at www.StrausFamilyCreamery.com, Facebook and Twitter. The new organic Greek yogurts are available at California grocery stores at a suggested retail price of $7.99, with a larger distribution in other western states anticipated by mid-year.