Stonyfield Plant Tour

The final stop of the Stonyfield Blogger Barnstorming Tour was at the Stonyfield plant for a tour of the facilities.

But, before we toured the plant, we ate breakfast!

Not surprisingly, breakfast at Stonyfield included lots of yogurt!

So much, in fact, that we did a taste-test of a bunch of flavors– many of which were new to me!

Mmm… Vanilla Over Chocolate Cream Top Yogurt!

So creamy, so delicious. Dessert for breakfast is totally fine, right?

I also loved the YoBaby 3-in-1 Meals, which are made with yogurt, fruit, and veggies. Ok, I know it sounds weird, but they’re quite delicious. I swear! Plus, I’m always trying to get more veggies in my diet so why not, right?

These yogurts comes in three flavors: pear +  green beans, apple + sweet potato, and peach + squash. (You don’t taste the veggies at all!) I liked all of the flavors, but peach + squash was definitely my favorite. 

Along with our yogurt tasting, we also enjoyed an amazing spread of breakfast goodies.

My plate included fresh fruit, a blueberry scone, and a piece of black bean and veggie frittata.

After breakfast, we got suited up to tour the Stonyfield plant. We literally got covered head to toe in protective gear– shoe covers, lab coats, helmets, goggles, and hairnets. Man, we looked HOT!

The plant tour was really cool! I loved seeing all of the “behind the scenes” action.

Bloggers love to take photos!

On the tour, we learned how Stonyfield yogurt is made. It starts with organic milk straight from the farms. (Stonyfield receives at least a dozen truck fulls each day!) When the milk arrives at the plant, it is tested to make sure it’s up to Stonyfield’s standards. If everything looks good, the milk is pasteurized, active cultures are added, and the yogurt is packaged in the “filling room.”

Once the yogurt is packaged, it is ?incubated? in a really warm room to activate the live cultures. The room was nice and toasty!

The holes in the cardboard packaging allow for proper air flow to all of the yogurt cups.

After a few hours of incubation, the yogurt is moved to a “cooling tunnel,” which gradually brings down the temperature of the yogurt. The yogurt is then stored in a refrigerated area and kept cold for the rest of the process, including transportation to your local grocery store.

Holy yogurt!

When it comes to the packaging used for Stonyfield yogurt, the company’s goal is to utilize the lightest cup possible to reduce the number of resources and energy required to produce it along the way. I loved seeing this commitment to the environment.

Another one of Stonyfield’s goals is to make their plant a zero-waste facility, which means using all renewable energy and recycling just about everything, so nothing ends up in a landfill or incinerator.

Stonyfield currently has 5,000 square feet of solar power paneling on their roof, which generates about 50 kw worth of energy. Apparently, this not a lot of energy compared to how much they use, but they’re planning to increase this amount.

Stonyfield’s ice cream and Oikos are made at a different facility because they require different processes. Oikos, for instance, is made with three times the amount of milk as regular Stonyfield yogurt (the reason it has so much protein), so, as you can imagine, this yogurt making process is quite different.

One more post to come: a visit to an organic CSA!