Is French the next trendy yogurt?

NEW YORK, July 2, (AP): There’s Greek yogurt, Icelandic yogurt and Australian yogurt. Now, the US maker of Yoplait is hoping to revive its declining sales by marketing yet another culture in the yogurt section.

Enter “Oui,” which General Mills is hailing as the arrival of “French-style” yogurt in the United States. Like the yogurts that channel the heritages of other countries, however, the company says there is no official definition for French yogurt.

“French is more a standard we have created,” said David Clark, head of the US yogurt unit at General Mills.

The attempt to cultivate a trendy new yogurt comes as overall US sales are slumping. Yogurt sales are down 3 percent so far this year compared to a year ago, according to Nielsen. General Mills Inc has been particularly hard-hit, with its yogurt sales down 20 percent in its latest quarter. The company attributes the industry-wide weakness to a lack of exciting new options since Greek yogurt upended the market.

Though Yoplait’s usual yogurts also have French roots, they come in flavors like key lime pie and contain ingredients such as modified corn starch and sucralose. That may not be exactly what comes to mind when people think of authentic French food.

To create the pricier Oui, General Mills said it imagined how yogurt might have been made in “French farmhouses 100 years ago.”