According to the official statement of the representatives of the Danon brand, the main useful component of Activia is live bacteria. They are specially bred in the company's laboratories. But what do experts in the field say about this?

Although the product itself is called and looks like yogurt, its composition differs from most similar products on the market.

The manufacturer claims that their product helps to lose weight and maintain a natural balance in the digestive system.

Is it really? Let's take a look at the composition of the product and analyze the impact of each ingredient on a person.

The ingredients of the Activia product are:

• cream
• skimmed milk powder
• starter for yogurt
• special bifidobacteria
• sugar and syrup
• caramel
• pectin
• citric acid
• sodium citrate
• dye
• flavoring
• starch

A detailed study of the composition leaves the exact opposite impression than the manufacturer's statement. That's why:

• a large amount of water has been added to the product, which reduces the value of the yoghurt component
• for a product that should promote weight loss contains too much
• artificial flavors, as well as flavorings, raise suspicions of harming the product to the body
• it has been reliably established that starch and milk powder contribute to indigestion

In addition, natural yogurt retains its main beneficial qualities only for a week from the moment of fermentation. And the manufacturer has set an expiration date for this product equal to one month. The dubious claim that yogurt retains its usefulness longer does not convince the contrary.

So do not console yourself with empty hopes that regular use of Activia will bring any benefit to your body. Maybe you won’t get any harm either, but food products containing chemicals still bring a certain extra load.

Is it really so? The main characteristics that nutritionists give to this product are as follows:

• Activia, when used in the first week after fermentation, does not give a greater effect than regular
• declared bifidobacteria have the same properties as bacteria in any other fermented milk product

That is, nutritionists are unanimous in their opinion that these products are no different from ordinary fermented milk products, with the exception of the presence a large number chemical additives.

In addition, a small part of nutritionists are simply sure that eating Activia-like products does more harm to digestion than good. So, such products help the process, like any fermented milk product.

At the same time, constant help to the body in the form of filling with the necessary bacteria from the outside, over time, displaces the natural bacteria of the stomach. That is, the stomach eventually gets used to receiving help from yogurt and ceases to produce its own substances.

So it is better to isolate yourself from the regular use of such products. Of course, on difficult days, when digestion is not in the best condition, it is worth rewarding yours with some amount of this product, but experts do not recommend using it all the time.

Benefits of Activia

In order to avoid undesirable consequences for the body, doctors recommend not experimenting with various products that are advertised as beneficial to health. Clinically unproven ones can always have a detrimental effect on the body, even if they may seem completely harmless in appearance.

Danone, like Heinz, gave the world a product that most people simply did not know about. Today, yogurt is one of the most popular dairy products worldwide. We are so accustomed to them that it is difficult to even imagine the fact that at the beginning of the last century they were eaten only in the east and the Balkans, and developed Europe and America did not even hear about this product.

Start
And it all started with Russia. The great Russian biologist Ilya Mechnikov in 1908 put forward his famous hypothesis, according to which the Bulgarian stick (contained just in yogurt) is able to protect the body and even prolong its life. In addition, Mechnikov believed that it could not only have a beneficial effect on the entire body, but also significantly improve the situation with the digestive tract.

The work of the Russian scientist inspired Isaac Karasu to found his company selling yogurt in Western Europe. Karasu lived in Thessaloniki, Greece. Since childhood, he was attached to yogurt, which was sold right on the streets of the city in glass jars. Like sour cream. However, he founded the company not in Greece at all. He had to leave his homeland, due to the fact that in 1912 the first Balkan war began. The Greeks had already almost approached Thessaloniki, when Isaac made a decision - the city should be left. Immediately. The thing is that he was the nephew of one of the leaders of the Young Turks. For the Greeks, he was the nephew of a traitor to the country, and he could not expect anything good. In case of contact with the invaders (or liberators, depending on how you judge)

Thus Isaac ended up in Barcelona. The first thing he did was change his last name. Now he began to be called Isaac Carasso. This was more in line with his current place of residence. This made it easier for people to get along. In Spain, he got acquainted with the works of Mechnikov, who made a great impression on Carasso. He realized that the product so familiar to him was absolutely unknown to Europeans. It was an opportunity to be seized.

In 1919, Isaac founded the Danone company. He named her after his son Daniel. To be more precise, "Danone" means "little Daniel". By that time, the Carasso family had already lived in Spain for 7 years. They are fully accustomed to the new place. And Isaac believed that he was quite capable of starting his own business. Carasso was right.

It should be noted that Isaac was a doctor by profession. To some extent, this contributed to the fact that he decided to distribute yogurt through a network of pharmacies, as a medicine. True, there was another important point to which you should pay attention. The thing is that few people knew about yogurt at that time. It was too difficult to bring this product to the grocery market, but various oriental medicines were in great demand. Yogurt was one of them.

The product immediately began to enjoy quite good demand. Danone's main supplier was Mechnikov's laboratory at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. It was from there that the company received the famous Bulgarian stick and some other ingredients. When the leadership of the company passed to Daniel Carasso, he immediately made a number of significant changes in its structure.

Perhaps the most noticeable was that the company's location changed - now it was located in Paris. Much closer to their suppliers. In the 1930s, yogurt was already very popular. And not only how medicine. For Europeans, they became the healthy dairy product we know them to be today. Danone already had competitors, but they could not even get close to the company's position. The brainchild of the Carasso family was a first in the industry and it really helped the company.

Second World War. Not the easiest time for all of Europe. Daniel Carasso knew that he had Jewish roots and decided not to tempt fate. During the war, he went to the United States, where he founded Dannon Milk Products Inc. You can see that the name of the American company was somewhat different from the European one. This was done on purpose in order to adapt it to some extent for local consumers. It should be noted that Carasso's move turned out to be correct. While Europe was in crisis, he managed to establish sales of yogurt in the United States. Instilling love for this product on the part of Americans.

In 1951, Carasso returned to Europe and began to rebuild the business. Some time later, he sold his American company. And after 2 years, a somewhat revolutionary event takes place on the market - a fruit Danone yogurt. It is today that we are accustomed to enjoy yogurt with strawberries, bananas or oranges. Until the age of 53, such products were not even out of the question! But Danone has corrected this situation.

Finally, in 1967, Danone expands its range for the first time. The company merges with one of France's leading cheese producers, Gervais. This was a very important move that allowed Danone to increase its cash flow and profits. In addition, by working together, it has become easier for companies to win leading positions in their markets. Some time later, there will be another important merger for Danone, which is worth talking about in more detail, as it affected the entire future history of the company.

Merger with BSN
The whole future fate of Danone is no longer connected with the founders of the company, but with the Ribot family. Antoine Ribot headed the company La Verrerie Souchon-Neuvesel, engaged in the production of glass containers. The company showed good results, but did not shine. Until Ribot decided to merge with Glaces de Boussois. The latter occupied a fairly significant position in the window glass market. Thus, BSN was born. Antoine Ribot became the head of the united enterprise. He immediately began to look for ways to further expand the company's activities.

In the course of such reflections, he came to the conclusion that his company could well expand its activities from the production of bottles to bottling. Therefore, some time later, BSN acquires a number of companies that can help it in this difficult undertaking: the Kronnenbourg beer manufacturer, Societe des Eaux d’Evian, engaged in mineral water, as well as baby food manufacturer Societe Europeenne de Brasseries. The company was doing better and better.

The company took over several other firms. The result of this is that it has become the undisputed leader in the window market in Europe. And in the early 70s, Danone Corporation appeared on the horizon, which was looking for a strong partner that could help it further expand. BSN was a perfect fit for such a partner. In 1973, a deal between the companies took place. A huge corporation called BSN-Gervais Danone was born, holding a leading position in many unrelated markets.

Later, the company began to have certain problems. There were serious problems in the real estate market. Every year the positions of BSN in the glass market deteriorated. All this led to the fact that by the beginning of the 80s the company had already sold all its Building bussiness and was completely focused on the food and some drinks that it produced.

The further fate of Danone
The next direction in the development of the company is difficult to describe in any other words, except for "buying everything in a row." The company acquired completely different businesses that were completely unrelated. Some of these purchases allowed the company to expand its geographic presence, but most turned out to be just unnecessary ballast that management decided to get rid of later. By the early 1990s, the company was producing yogurt, cheese, beer, mineral water, baby food, champagne, pasta, biscuits, toast, pain relievers, and more.

It must be said that many purchases allowed the company to seriously expand its business and gain good positions in new markets. Some companies just got in the way. As a result, they were sold. Another thing worth noting is that Ribot always tried to carry out transactions in sufficient short time. The company rapidly bought up all new firms, penetrating new markets for itself. Many people said that Danone acted too harshly. To some extent, it was true, but this is business. And rigidity only helped her to develop.

By the mid-1990s, the company had reverted to its original name, Danone. By this point, she was a giant akin to Procter & Gamble, owning a huge number of diverse brands. Antoine Ribot was the leader who turned Danone into a global giant, leading in many areas, including the yogurt market.

After the departure of Antoine, the company was headed by his son, Franck Ribot. He embarked on a major restructuring of the company, the goal of which was to get rid of many unnecessary brands. Interestingly, at the end of the 20th century, and at the beginning of the 21st century, the company was not averse to absorbing Nestle. But this was not possible, since the French government simply refused this deal, issuing a bill, the essence of which was that France does not allow the sale of its strategic important enterprises foreign corporations. There is nothing surprising in this, since Danone is a real treasure of France. Naturally, no one wanted to lose it, giving it into the hands of foreigners.

The company's strategy today is expressed in three main areas for it: fresh dairy products and baby food, biscuits and mineral water. It is these markets that are the main ones for modern Danone. I don’t think that this was a revelation for you, since most people associate the brand with them. In all three markets, Danone is one of the leading companies. Today, the company produces many famous products, among which are such familiar to the Russian ear as "Rastishka", "Actimel", "Danissimo", "Activia", "Danette", Evian and Aqua mineral water and much more.

In addition, it is worth noting that Danone owns 18.36% of the shares Russian company Wimm-Bill-Dann. Danone was one of the most important investors in Sergei Plastinin's company, one of the first to invest in it when it went public. But this is another valuable asset of the French giant.

Livejournal user writes zyalt: Danone recently invited a group of bloggers to their plant in the Chekhov district of the Moscow region to show how everyone's favorite yogurt is made from milk. The plant was built in 2000 and is considered the most modern and powerful among all Danone enterprises in the world! Every year, about 300,000 tons of fresh dairy products are produced here.

1. Yogurt starts with a cow! Amazing, right? Milk is supplied to the yogurt factory from 20 different farms located near the factory. The farms themselves do not belong to Danon, but they monitor the quality of milk very carefully. We were shown one of them.

2. Cows look happy, contented and full. They should make good steaks.

3. Cows don't have names, only numbers. But the pattern of a cow's nose is unique, like human fingerprints.

4. It turns out that cows love winter more than summer. -10 degrees is their favorite temperature. Do you know how long a cow sleeps? You won't guess anything! A cow only sleeps for a few minutes a day! 10-15 minutes and you're done! Here I really want to be a cow sometimes

5. This is a special piece for manure removal. She constantly moves around the barn and rakes manure into a special pit.

6. Calves are kept separately in a manger. Orphans grow up without parents and do not know mother's love at all. This does not prevent them from being curious, playing with visitors and getting scared by any rustle.

7. By the way, just now I’m thinking, how is manure removed from calves? Do not change the straw every day.

9. Several times a day the cows go to be milked. Everything happens almost automatically. Milkmaids only wash the udder and attach the milking machine.

10. Fresh milk is cooled down to 3-4 degrees

12. There is a laboratory at the reception of milk, where they take samples and check that everything is in order with the milk. If any filth is found in the milk, then the entire batch is sent back to the farm.

13. Accidents at work for all the time was countless, information about them hangs on the stands. In general, everything is in order with safety at the plant. All employees must wear bathrobes, hats and special shoes. No jewelry or watches may be worn. Before entering, everyone must wash and then disinfect their hands. They put a protective cap on me, it turned out very funny, but then all the photos were classified.

14. Corridors are like small streets. There are crossings, sidewalks and protective barriers here, for complete happiness it remains to start up a tram here.

15. This is where yogurt is made.

16. It seems to me that no one knows how this happens. It is impossible for a random person to understand this web of pipes.

17. Today, this plant produces yogurts and curds Danone, Activia, Actimel, Rastishka, Danissimo, and others for the whole country plus for export to the CIS countries.

19. Some pipes are signed. By the way, it is used for production artesian water from own wells.

20. All this is controlled from a computer. In general, you will hardly meet people at the plant - all production is automated as much as possible. I think that in 10 years people will disappear from factories altogether and everything will be done by robots.

21. But in this machine a cup is made, filled with yogurt and packaged. Cups are made from colored food-grade plastic.

22. In the first half, cups are stamped, in the second they are filled with yogurt and closed. It is important that everything is done in one place, this prevents bacteria and foreign particles from entering the yogurt.

24. Empty cups.

25. Labels.

26. By the way, once a week each employee of the plant is given a box of yoghurts for the whole family. The main injustice is that they give out the product that you make. Therefore, some families eat only Rastishka, while others drink only Actimel.

28. Danissimo bottling machine.

29. And these are huge jars of jam. They come from a different factory and are added to yogurt. In the foreground is a 900kg tank of chocolate. Would love to put one like this in the kitchen!

30. Rastishka is bottled here.

Who doesn't love yogurt? Delicious, airy, they beckon from supermarket windows. Until recently, the only yogurt in Russia was ordinary kefir with a shelf life of 2-3 days, to which we ourselves added sugar, berries or syrup at will. It turned out to be a wonderful and very healthy drink. Did Danone succeed in repeating this?

The yogurt of this manufacturer is a priori considered useful, as advertising tells us about it year after year. The latest development of scientists, live bifidobacteria, a product that restores digestion and intestinal activity, strengthens the immune system - all these are well-known slogans that we hear from TV every day. Does this product really have such an effect on the body, or is it just a publicity stunt to sell as much as possible? Let's figure it out together. So, meet the product from the company "Danone" - yogurt with live bifidobacteria.

First meeting

There is nothing surprising in the fact that the modern consumer is in no hurry to believe advertising. And the more the manufacturer assures him that the optimal solution to all his problems with digestion is the product "Danone" - yogurt without chemical additives, flavors and dyes, the more the buyer begins to think. Today, there are many lactic acid products on the market, the shelf life of which is more than 30 days, and at the same time, the information on the label says that it can and should be used to normalize digestion.

Not a single beneficial bacteria will live in a closed jar for 30 days, so you can immediately refuse such a purchase. A bright shade, a pungent smell of fruit - it’s better not to give such yogurt to a child, as it will not give him anything but harm. It is in this that the difference between Danone products is manifested. The yogurt made at this production is really natural, it does not contain any dubious additives. But so that you know exactly what you will buy, let's analyze the composition in more detail.

live bacteria

I would like to make a reservation right away, natural Danone yogurt is not a medicine, therefore, if you have serious problems in the field of gastroenterology, then consult a doctor, and not a supermarket. But for the prevention of various diseases, it is perfect. Fermented dairy products will help your digestive system function the way it's supposed to. In the composition in the first place are living cultures. These are varieties of probiotic microorganisms, which are the active components of yogurt.

How exactly do they affect the gastrointestinal tract

What are probiotic cultures? These are special microorganisms that, once in the intestines, survive and help fight harmful, putrefactive and pathogenic bacteria. Thus, you get a double effect. On the one hand, probiotics improve health digestive system, slowing down inflammatory processes in the stomach, and on the other hand, they maintain the balance of natural microflora. You get this effect by regularly eating Danone yogurt.

The natural product does not contain chemicals and dyes, its composition is extremely simple. At the same time, the calorie content of this yogurt is only 83 kcal per 100 g of the product. Now we will continue to consider what it consists of.

sodium citrate

An incomprehensible term on a package with a natural and safe food product introduces a buyer into some confusion. What it is? In fact, this is just an acidity regulator, it acts as a buffer. is widely used in commercial food production and is considered to be completely safe. If to speak plain language, it is the sodium salt of citric acid. It is added to improve the taste, as this ingredient allows you to control the level of acidity of the final product. And again, we are convinced that we have a natural and safe yogurt. Danone coordinates the composition of its products with such that these yoghurts inspire the greatest confidence of consumers.

Sugar

We know yoghurts as a sweet dessert, although they also come in neutral flavors. However, this brand all comes with added sugar. If you are planning to lose weight, and you are advised to give up sweets, then it is better to choose fermented milk products without fillers. However, the manufacturer, taking care of the end consumer, introduced sugar and fructose into the composition in a 50/50 ratio. No synthetic sweeteners. However, this very moment is the reason for the appearance of negative reviews on the Web, in which consumers accuse the company of producing low-quality products. The fact is that a certain category of people have fructose intolerance. When eating such yogurt, they will experience diarrhea and bloating, as well as pain in the abdomen. However, these are isolated cases, mostly consumers perfectly tolerate Danone yogurt. The price, however, is not too high.

The product is sold within the average price category. On average, a bottle (290 g) of drinking yogurt of this brand costs 46 rubles. The usual dessert product is a little cheaper - about 30 rubles.

Additional Ingredients

Milk fermented with lactic acid bacteria does not have the same consistency as the yogurt that you are used to buying in the store. To achieve this, manufacturers use gelatin. This component gives the yogurt its uniformity and texture, and it also helps to improve the taste and aroma of this product. However, it should be remembered that gelatin is always of animal origin, so it is better for vegetarians to look for a product using agar-agar.

Cornstarch is used to thicken yogurt. It not only makes the mass thicker, but also protects against spoilage at high temperatures. Finally, the composition contains It is in itself useful and natural product, which does not allow harmful bacteria to multiply in yogurt, which is very important for maintaining beneficial microflora and stability of the environment inside the jar.

Special technology

Until now, we have known two forms of yogurt that are presented on the shelves. It is drinking bottled and dessert. In both cases, the finished product was poured into prepared containers. However, meet the new product from Danone - thermostatic yogurt. This is a product that is fermented and ripened directly in the container in which it is sold in the store. It contains only three ingredients: milk, sourdough and bifidobacteria. Inside the package, a unique environment is created that allows milk to ferment. And since the container is hermetically sealed, there is no access for other bacteria, due to this it turns out to abandon various preservatives, even such as citric acid and apple cider vinegar.

There is one more cardinal difference of the new product, which Danone pleased the manufacturer with. the consistency is dense, which makes it possible to refuse the addition of starch and gelatin. Thus, the buyer receives exactly the useful and natural product that helps to improve bowel activity and quickly lose weight. Given the low calorie content of this variety of yogurt (50 kcal per 100 g of product), it is obvious that it is better to use it for weight loss.