Yogurt

Dannon Co. settled a false-advertising lawsuit Friday, agreeing to set up a $35-million fund to reimburse consumers who bought its Activia and DanActive yogurts. The class-action lawsuit, filed in January 2008, alleged that Dannon lied when marketing its Activia and DanActive yogurts by trumpeting health benefits that didn't exist. The White Plains, N.Y.-based yogurt maker denied the claims and admitted no wrongdoing as part of the settlement. The decision to settle was based on Dannon's desire "to avoid the distraction and expense of litigation," spokesman Michael Neuwirth said.

Trish Wiener believes Dannon misled her, and she wants to milk it for all it's worth. In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, she accuses the yogurt maker of a "massive and comprehensive" false advertising campaign for its Activia, Activia Light and DanActive products. Dannon promotes them as clinically proven to help regulate digestion and boost immunity because they contain bacteria that Wiener's suit says aren't so special.

It's frozen. It's sour yet sweet. It's dispensed in a twist. But is Pinkberry \o7really \f7yogurt? That's the uncomfortable question swirling this week around the uber-trendy, Los Angeles-based chain that has attracted legions of calorie-counting, yoga mat-toting devotees and spawned a spate of imitators. "Crackberry" addicts, prepare for your favorite dessert to take a licking from California Department of Food and Agriculture officials. Their answer: Nogurt.

Score one for Pinkberry in the latest round of the all-out Southern California frozen-yogurt fight. The growing Pinkberry Inc. chain took a couple of body blows last month, when two consumer lawsuits were filed contending that the popular frozen dessert lacked the healthy bacteria cultures found in yogurt.

FOR a guy who has yet to officially open his business in the U.S., the president of fledgling frozen yogurt company Red Mango is having a very good day. "We just installed a machine in Leonardo DiCaprio's office," Dan Kim says from the South Korea-based firm's office near LAX. "Now he wants a machine delivered to his temporary home in New York. Apparently, he heard about the rats at Pinkberry's New York store." Kim laughs at his own cheap shot.

As an intern at an investment banking firm, Dan Kim lived every poor college student's dream: takeout meals delivered to his office every day, and on the company dime. "I just started eating everything," he recalls, "and forgot about my whole health plan." In three months, he gained 25 pounds. It was a lot for a 5-foot-10-inch former high school athlete -- so much that his then-girlfriend, living in another city, didn't recognize him. Kim shed the weight and never looked back.

Pinkberry: In the Orange County edition of The Guide on Thursday, a photo accompanying an article about Pinkberry incorrectly featured a photo of a competing frozen yogurt chain.

First there was dolphin-safe. Now, courtesy of General Mills, we have skunk-safe. It may not carry the same emotional cachet of the dolphins imperiled by tuna nets, but foraging skunks who poke their noses into discarded Yoplait yogurt containers have been dying at a small but noticeable rate for years, animal rights activists say. In an effort to prevent more deaths, which activists estimate to be about 100 nationwide each year, the maker of the No.