 | YAKULT | Apr 5, '09 7:39 AM
for everyone |
One day I drank a bottle of Yakult. Then I wanted more. So I drank another one. But then I thought I still had not enough.
Which prompted me to ask the question: Why aren't the Japanese not producing bigger sizes of Yakult?
IS IT BECAUSE OF PRICE?
At first I thought it's about pricing strategy. Bigger Yakult means bigger price. Yakult lovers may be turned off by the higher price that comes with the purchase of Big Yakult. So maybe the Japanese thought it's the optimum volume for the optimum price.
But how high is high?
I did a quick computation. One Yakult bottle is just 80-mL which costs Php 7.00. So if we want to quadruple it up to make it big enough to satiate our cultured milk cravings i.e. 320-mL, the rough price estimate of the Big Yakult would be Php 28.00, assuming a one-to-one volume to price correspondence.
But here I overestimate. Bulk production of and less labor cost on my Big Yakult may not even result to a price increase by a factor of 4 for a corresponding 400% volume increase. So the technically reasonable price for my Big Yakult will just have to be in the range of Php 20.00 to 25.00.
Is that so high we Yakult lovers won't be lovers anymore?
I thought otherwise. Other 'feel good' drinks such as fruit juices like Fit & Right, energy drinks (Gatorade) and Fresh Milk itself do fall under the price range of Php 20 and up. Hell even more expensive.
But even if it would really be that pricey, it doesn't mean that we shall bid good-bye to the 80-mL bottles we learned to love. The 320-mL Yakult bottles that can stand shoulder to shoulder with Coke, C2 and Gatorade will just target the upper class market. The 80-mL little ones will still be there for those who want it small and cheap.
So I don't think the marketing researchers of Yakult Honsha Company were the devil's advocates of my 'Go Large' proposal. So what then is keeping these shrewd Japanese from sizing up my Yakult? Why are they giving me less when all I want is more?
 Yakult in Different Flavors Available only in Singapore
It bears mentioning that in Singapore and South Korea, Yakult is offered in 100-mL bottles (in contrast to our 80-mL). So there's my much-needed 20-mL volume increase. But that's not enough! I had gulped down two 80-mL bottles already and the way I look at yet another bottle is no different from the way a lion stares at a doe.
The Aussies and Europeans have more to grumble about. In their countries, Yakult just comes in 65-mL bottles. This just reinforces my 'it's not the price' theory because the Aussies and Europeans have exponentially higher purchasing power than Pinoys that they can conveniently grab a Big Yakult with no questions asked.
OR THEY HAVEN'T JUST THOUGHT ABOUT IT?
Does it mean then that my 'Go Large' proposal haven't crossed the minds of R&D people of Yakult?
How to Make Yakult? This one is for my chem eng friends.
It's here I recall Kaizen, a Japanese philosophy that focuses on continuous improvement in all aspects of life, best applied in manufacturing procedures (Toyota's energy efficient cars best exemplify this). And then I realize I underestimate the Japanese. Yakult was created in the 1930's by Minoru Shirota, a graduate of Medical School of Kyoto University. Almost eight decades have passed, people of 31 countries the world over are now filling their intestines with Lactobacillus Casei whose cultures come from a mother strain in Japan regardless of production location. Of course, they have thought of this Go Large idea in one time or another. It's just that it's not a good idea.
But why?
I looked at the formulation of Yakult. I found that it contains 18g sugar for every 100g. Shocks. This concentration is higher than the level defined as "HIGH" by the UK Food Standards Agency. Voila!
This is the reason why Yakult has to come in small bottles. Because if they do come in large ones, diabetes mellitus will come next.
Compare it with Coke and other orange juices whose sugar concentrations are in the range of 10-g per 100-g. Their smaller sugar concentration affords them the luxury of offering their products in relatively larger volumes.
What's the point? The supposedly 'Okay Ka Ba Tiyan' benefits that Yakult prides itself upon will be far outweighed by the risks the come with high sugar intake. Corollarily, taking another bottle of Yakult---while buttressing my intestinal good bacteria army---will just make my belly bulge even more. It follows the law of diminishing returns that says more doesn't always mean better.
Lactobacillus Casei
This raises the question: Why not reduce the sugar content then?
Ooooh I think the Japanese are not willing to compromise the sweet flavor the world learned to love.
* Note: i'm in no way affiliated with yakult nor with its competitors. just for fun.
 | OA ka...tsk..wala ka talaga magawa noh!?? HAHAHA |
 | hahaha. .ang galing namin... pinag isipan tlga..at kompleto sa research... |
 | grabe. inisip mo talaga toh? |
| HAHA AS IN LAHAT KINOPYA NI SHE? |
| SHIT. ANG PANGET KAYA NUNG IBANG SHOTS DUN |
 | akala ko naman, hindi puwedeng uminum ng madami at once, kasi baka havoc kapag too much good bacteria sa tiyan. LOL.
but my mom always packed two bottles for my kinder lunchbox.
wow ang informative. and we can't have too much of a good thing lagi. :) |
 | amazing.
ewan ko ba, kahit kailan di ako nahilig sa yakult. haha.
naive's question: bakit kaya nagkakaiba pa ng serving yung mga countries? can it be the traced down to the lifestyle, or body composition of the people? uhm.. i don't know. haha. |
 | i love yakult :j hahahaha interesting post carlos.. |
 | OA naman kapag naging technical ang response ko sa blog mo and besides people can just google the benefits of yakult (i prefer scientific journal articles though. hehehe).
interesting story na lang:
merong professor emeritus sa elbi na almost 90 years old na and he is informally regarded as the "father of microbiology" in the philippines. sabi ng isa kong prof umiinom daw yun ng yakult everyday kaya malakas pa rin hanggang ngayon. mabilis pa nga maglakad at witty pa rin sa mga conventions and scientific meetings on microbiology.
yun lang. hehe.
p.s. i drink yakult everyday. i don't mind the added sugar intake. i need my daily dose of microbes. ;) |
 | haha! akala ko dahil optimized na ang good bacterial content ng isang bote ng yakult para sa isang araw.. hindi kaya pwede ding dahilan yun? hmmm
One 1.5-L coke = ~10 bottles ng yakult.. (assuming the density of cake and yakult is similar to water)
bale yung one 1.5 L coke mo sa isang linggo ay equal lng sa 3 excess yakult bottles per week (if you take it daily).. hehe |
| btw, para san ba ang good microbes sa tiyan ko? panlaban lng ba yun sa bad bacteria? pano pag hindi ako uminom? anong mangyayari sakin as compared sa drinkers? minsan pag naggrocery ako naiisip ko na hindi ko naman talaga kailangan ang yakult, nakakapag pahaba ba talaga yun ng buhay o nakakapagpalakas of may health benefits ba talaga yun? gastos lng ang yakult, i dont really feel the benefits, although masarap cya.. hehe |
 | kpguevarra wrote on Apr 6, '09, edited on Apr 6, '09  witty!
never minarket ang yakult as fitness drink.  well, like you said, diabetes mellitus. hahahaha |
| ha ha. pwede din.
pero bakit mas madami ang kelangan ng singaporeans at south koreans (100-mL) kesa sa aussies at europeans (65-mL)?
i'm more inclined to believe that volume per bottle is highly dictated by food regulation agencies of these countries.
pero since hindi ako micro major at mejo hindi ganun ako ka-brilliant sa basic micro ko nung undergrad, i am asking jan (who is taking up MS in Microbiology in Diliman):
Can Lactobacillus Casei thrive in diluted media, for example same amount of the bacteria in 80-mL bottle contained in 8-ounce bottle?
and don't they multiply kapag nagtagal? or refrigeration checks the microbe population? kasi kung nag-mumultiply sila while in storage, marco's optimum bacterial content may not hold water. yup. they can. as long as the nutrients they need for growth are present in the medium. kaya merong dextrose sa yakult (carbon source). however, diluting the medium will have an effect on cell number - the more diluted the medium, the lower the cell number. so the manufacturers have to make sure the cell number of Lactobacillus casei is at least 10,000,000 cfu/ml (whatever the bottle size may be) to ensure the full probiotic effect.
your right, common sense tells us that prolonged conditions, both refrigerated and at room temp, will make the microbes multiply and eventually reach their death phase. i suspect yakult has a patented technology (trade secret) of ensuring the cell number at an optimum temperature at a given time (hence the "keep refrigerated" and "best before" labels).
share ko lang:
nestle has a patented technology of ensuring the viability of microbes in powdered milk (nido probiotics). each cell has a specialized coating wherein they are activated from their dormant stage after contact with water.
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| ang dami ng comments ah.. ngayon lng ako nakabasa ng blog na very informative pero interesting..hehehe..thanks carlo.. :-).. |
 | i think what jan is pointing out is that the maximum number of lactobacillus casei that can live in 1 ml is 10,000,000 cfu. anything more might jeopardize flavor, anything less might jeopardize probiotic effect. |
 | ang tawag sa taong mahilig uminom ng yakult... yakulero! haha |
| heto nanaman po ang weird profundity ni ruben.
shucks nag intellectual disco (discussion) na kayo ng mga chem/microbio people sa reply thread ang sarap basahin! :) |
 | i like it. but i've never craved for a liter of yakult the way i craved for a liter of melon milk. it's not exactly a drink that quenches thirst or general craving. i rather think your yakult craving is singular. it's like medicinal milk. milk, but medicinal...you know? |
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