Danimals Yogurt Drinks Cut 25 Percent of Sugar from Ingredients

In the last few months, Danimals Smoothies, a line of yogurt drinks in Technicolor packaging for the pint-size set, have cut 25 percent of sugar out of their ingredients.  

"One thing I have learned is that the main driver of yogurt sales above all is taste," said Sergio Fuster, senior vice president for marketing at Dannon, according to The New York Times. "You do not want to send any signal to the consumer that might lead her to believe the taste has changed because she will simply pick up another yogurt - and it may not be ours."

Many health professionals feel this is a step in the right direction as the original nutrition panel shows that one bottle of the yogurt, which is less than half a cup, contains only 90 calories but around 3 teaspoons of sugar.

Advisers had even referred to the product as "liquid yogurt candy."

Yogurt sales are one of the fastest-growing food items on the market, and Dannon, Yoplait and Stonyfield are additional contributors that are thrown into the mix.

As the company went from 14 to 10 grams in their product, health professionals feel they've made a good move in the right direction, not only for obvious dietary benefits, but also to get ahead of the game.

However, the only indication of the new dietary change is in the fine print on the nutrition label, which shows that the product's sugar content is slightly lower than for its competitors.

 "We want to shift the discussion away from the quantity of calories, although they are impacted with this change, to talking about the quality of the calories in yogurt, like how much protein it delivers," Fuster said.