This is how a German refrigerator looks like after a visit to 86850 Aretsried where we went shopping at the “company outlet” of Müller Milch. Sometimes, the products cost less than 10 cents, so the thrifty housewife really restocks when going there.
You can only buy huge quantities, a dozen of each or more. But these easy-to-eat products have been well marketed and are therefore much loved. Consequently, they sell like “hot cakes”.
They are all masterpieces of food engineering, their durability is almost unlimited, they are low on calories and free from fat. You can get them totally sugar-free and in many taste variances. In the yoghurt factory, they are industrially produced out of ingredients like milk powder, aromatic additions, sweetener, probably with lots of water and little milk.
Deceitful combinations of aromatic components conjure up emotional involvement in the products. They may not quite make you addictive, but they still make you crave after more. Colourful images, attractive colours and “ecotrophological” information add to the seductiveness.
The wrapping is terribly intricate. Some brands have the individual ingredients in separate compartments of the container, so you can mix them yourself before you eat them. There is an expensive aluminium lid to the plastic bottles. The sixpack has an additional carton frame. And when they arrive at the shop, the entire stack is wrapped in transparent plastic.
A small bottle weighing 125 grams is the top seller. The inscription sounds very healthy. You can empty it in one go. There is no doubt that the wrapping is more expensive than the actual product. It is one great cheer to our throw-away society.
Not too long ago, it used to be different. When I was a child, we still had milk shops. Fresh milk was actually fresh. It came out of a valve and was pumped out of the zinc milk container by a long lever. Today, everything is tetrapak.
In the milk shop, the range of products was quite small. You could buy yoghurt, all natural, that came in bottles you had to pay a deposit for and that could hold a quarter of a litre. They had a carton lid. On certain weekdays, you could buy cheddar cheese or butter milk. A few brands of cheese were available, and that was it.
If you left it standing around in summer, you did not have to wait long until you had soured milk, which was also quite tasty. The yoghurts were absolutely fresh, but could not be kept very long.
If we wanted yoghurt with fruit in it, we had to go and gather, for instance, raspberries, which in those days was also easier than it is today. Then we made our own raspberry yoghurt. Or else, we sometimes used the self-made strawberry jam for refining the yoghurt. That was truly delicious.
Though I am constantly being sneered at and still yearning for yoghurt, I proudly announce that I now succeeded:
I no longer eat yoghurt out of plastic containers!
I see no other way of opposing the aforementioned development.
RMD
(Translated by EG)
Loading ...