Noosa Yogurt’s ‘Farm to Fridge’ Claims

@TruthinAd saw this and immediately thought of your good work. “Farm to Table” is one thing, but Farm to Fridge yogurt/yoghurt????? pic.twitter.com/bPiXglVrW4

— Carmine Scarpaglia (@wishboneoption) July 21, 2018

As far as meaningless food marketing terms go, noosa yogurt’s “farm to fridge” is a real treasure. Not to be confused with “farm to table,” farm to fridge is meant to describe the journey the yogurt takes from noosa’s headquarters in Bellvue, Colorado to the store, to the shopping cart, to the car and, finally, to the fridge. At least that’s our best guess.

Asked to define its term, which appears in a “how it’s made” section on its website and in the sign above that a TINA.org reader alerted us to, we didn’t get the clearest answer from the company:

noosa is made on a family-owned farm in Northern Colorado. All of the milk noosa sources to make yoghurt comes either from the company’s own dairy cows at the farm or partner farms within 40 miles from noosa’s headquarters and farm. noosa is first delivered to retailers and eventually reaches the fridges of consumers.

OK, but what specifically makes noosa yogurt a farm-to-fridge product? we asked.

noosa is made in small batches with whole milk which gives the product its thick, velvety texture.

Not the most satisfying answer especially when one considers that noosa isn’t selling milk, it’s selling yogurt, with other ingredients that come from other places such as Madagascar, where noosa says it gets its vanilla beans.

Part of what makes the farm-to-table movement attractive to consumers is the knowledge that the food comes from a local farmer who has a close relationship with the restaurant and not, as a Portlandia sketch put it, “some guy in a yacht that lives in Miami who’s saying he’s organic.”

Noosa says on its site that “because the milk isn’t shipped across the country, we know it’s fresh.” Again, milk is just one of the ingredients in the yogurt and according to a Q and A on Entrepreneur.com with Koel Thomae, one of noosa’s co-founders, the company’s products “are sold in more than 25,000 stores nationwide,” including Target, Whole Foods, Kroger and Walmart. Noosa told TINA.org: “Like most refrigerated foods, noosa is delivered via refrigerated trucks. We try our hardest to get our products out to retailers as quickly as possible to maintain freshness.” Perhaps, then, “farm to truck” would be a more accurate tagline?

Find more of our coverage on food marketing terms here.