December 9/Chicago/PRWEB -- Yogurt is a food celebrity and not only has the dairy delicacy conquered increasing real estate at retail, in refrigerators and lunch bags, it is now a double-digit growth category for many foodservice operations, including colleges/universities, hospitals/healthcare, recreation, and eating and drinking establishments, reports The NPD Group.

Total dollar volume of yogurt shipped through broadline foodservice distributors to foodservice outlets grew 10% and units shipped by 7% in the year ending September 2013 compared to a year ago, according to NPD’s SupplyTrack.

Dollar sales of yogurt shipped to colleges/universities increased by more than 11%. In addition to its growth at schools and universities, total dollars of yogurt shipped to hospitals/healthcare, eating and drinking establishments, government, recreation, and retail foodservice also increased by double-digits in the year ending September compared to year ago, according to SupplyTrack, which captures information on categories, brands, items, product attributes, and operator segment.

Greek yogurt is the protein star of the category, with a double-digit gain in dollar sales and units shipped from broadline distributors to foodservice outlets. Yogurt types geared to kids realized an almost double-digit increase over a year ago in dollars shipped.

“Yogurt is a good example of how combining the knowledge of a category’s market dynamics and performance metrics with consumer consumption behavior can be the edge foodservice distributors, manufacturers, and operators need to gain share,” says Annie Roberts, vice president, NPD SupplyTrack.

Per capita yogurt consumption has more than doubled over the decade, and now nearly one in three individuals eats yogurt, according to NPD’s ongoing consumer market research.