What Happens if You Put Store Bought Yogurt in the Freezer?

Yogurt is a popular healthy snack that provides many nutrients and probiotics. When you freeze yogurt, it changes the flavor and the texture slightly, but the probiotics should remain intact.

Yogurt is a popular healthy snack that provides many nutrients and probiotics. It is a fermented milk product with a slightly sour taste and a smooth, often creamy texture. However, it can spoil quickly in the refrigerator if you don’t eat it soon after purchase. We prevent many foods from spoiling by freezing them, but can you freeze yogurt without losing the probiotic benefits? Yes, you can. Read on to see how.

Yogurt is a significant source of many health benefits. Most people know it’s high in probiotics, which are vital for gut health and help prevent digestion problems. Yogurt is also typically high in protein and calcium due to its milk content, and contains a good amount of potassium and B vitamins. Although there are numerous varieties of non-dairy yogurt available as well, many people with lactose intolerance find that they have few issues with yogurt due to probiotics helping to digest the lactose properly, as well as high pH activating the body’s natural bacterial lactase to aid digestion.

If you want to try freezing your yogurt, whether to keep it from spoiling or to create a cold, healthy treat, there are a few things to consider:

Choose the right container

First, choose an appropriate container to freeze it in. If you’re buying individual serving cups of yogurt, those are typically safe to freeze as long as they don’t come in glass containers. If you purchase your yogurt in bulk or want to get rid of the packaging, make sure that the container you choose is safe to put in the freezer. As a general rule, don’t freeze in glass containers such as tumblers, wine glasses, or mason jars. If you must freeze in glass, choose something tempered or rated for the freezer, and leave room at the top for the yogurt to expand as it freezes. If the glass breaks, throw it out, along with any food inside it, even if you think it might still be safe.

Generally, the best containers for freezing are flexible plastic, such as plastic Tupperware or Ziploc freezer bags. Silicone containers are also great for freezing because they stretch to accommodate the expansion from freezing liquids. Silicone ice cube trays and clean, food-grade popsicle sticks can turn yogurt into a great popsicle-like treat for hot days.

Choose the right brand

Second, consider how freezing will affect the texture. There are many styles of yogurt, including extra creamy, light, Greek, French, Icelandic Skyr, and thinner drinkable varieties. Different brands or yogurt styles will freeze differently, with some producing a more grainy or flaky effect like pie crust or schist rock due to the separation of the frozen water content from the milk proteins. Other types will maintain some of their smoothness when they freeze. Often yogurts with stabilizing ingredients have the most consistent texture when frozen.

Try freezing samples of a few different brands or styles to see if you prefer the texture and flavor of one over the others. Because all people have slightly different senses of taste, some may find that all frozen yogurt tastes and feels the same to them, while others find they have strong preferences. Taste can also change as you age, so over time, you may notice that your preferred brand changes.

Thawing your yogurt

When frozen yogurt thaws, it often changes the texture and flavor slightly from the original, unfrozen product. Many yogurts separate when frozen and need stirring to reincorporate and homogenize the mixture. For this reason, frozen and thawed yogurts may seem thinner or lumpier.

You can, of course, eat your frozen yogurt without thawing it completely. Yogurt fresh from the freezer may be solid, making it difficult to dig into with a spoon, so some thawing may be necessary to soften it. You can also freeze your yogurt into lickable popsicles and eat it straight from the freezer.

It’s safest to thaw your yogurt overnight in the refrigerator, as countertop temperatures may cause unsafe bacterial growth. If necessary, you can partially thaw yogurt outside the refrigerator, but it should be eaten or refrigerated within two hours to ensure it remains safe.

Probiotic content partially defines yogurt. To be classified as yogurt, a food must contain at least two specific strains of probiotic “good” bacteria. However, many yogurt products have additional bacterial strains for added health value. The FDA requires all yogurt contain Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus. Other popular strains to add are Lactobacillus acidophilus and strains of Bifidobacteria.

Although these bacterial strains thrive in warm environments — typically between 98 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit — studies have shown that they can survive for several weeks at refrigerated or freezing temperatures. Many harmful bacteria also thrive at warmer temperatures, so refrigerating or freezing your yogurt can protect its health benefits while slowing spoilage. According to the USDA, you can keep yogurt in the fridge without spoiling for one to two weeks. However, frozen yogurt can keep for up to two months. 

Although it often contains similar probiotic content, manufacturers market store-bought frozen yogurt as a dessert. Comparable to ice cream, it may be higher in sugar or fat than regular yogurt that you freeze yourself. However, “froyo,” as it’s colloquially known, is often churned as it’s frozen, incorporating air bubbles into the mixture and producing a slightly smoother final product. If this is your preferred texture, you may achieve a similar result at home by using an ice cream machine to freeze your yogurt instead of simply placing the container in the freezer.