Greek yogurt, also known as kerned yogurt, has been strained to remove most of its whey, resulting in a thicker consistency. The yogurt is highly recommended for lactose intolerant people.
This type of yoghurt is not stocked in most Kenyan supermarkets, something that drove Deborah Jones Nduku, the founder of Mtindi Dairies, to start its production.
Appearing on Citizen TV, Deborah said she was on vacation when she came across Greek yogurt while in a supermarket in the UK.
She loved the yoghurt when she tried it and resolved to venture into the business after she couldn’t find it in local supermarkets.
“I happened to stumble upon Greek yogurt which was something that I’d never tasted, it was so delicious. So when I came back to Kenya I looked for it in the market but I didn’t find
“The idea came to me to try and start it, I made a bit of it through googling the recipe and with a few errors here and there we managed to crack the recipe,” Deborah told Citizen TV.
Deborah told Business Daily that after learning the craft from YouTube and web articles, she shared samples with close family and friends and the feedback was better than expected.
“The result is a yummy, healthy scoop of yoghurt goodness that is thicker, has less sugar, and contains real fruit and double the amount of protein and calcium found in regular yoghurt. Our yoghurt also has extremely low lactose levels,” she said.
Mtindi Diaries
Mtindi is the Swahili name for yogurt or sour/fermented milk.
The food processor sources its milk from local farmers before boiling it using a milk pasteurizer machine, cooling it down and inoculating it.
“Once it’s ready, we take it a step further which now makes it strained yogurt; you strain it to remove whey,” Deborah explained.
The company produces variety of Greek yogurt flavors including natural plain, strawberry, pineapple, mango and passion.
Their products are stocked in Naivas, Healthy U, Zukini and ArtCafe Market. They also sell their products online.
Mtindi is the only company manufacturing greek yogurt in Kenya.
The company uses over 4 tonnes of milk in a month to produce the yogurt whose demand is growing at a steady rate.
The company is run by a team of at least five employees; some on permanent basis and other on contract.
“We train them but there are some who have studied food science. The ones that need training we normally train them,” Deborah mentioned.
