Daniel Carasso (December 16, 1905[1] – May 17, 2009),[2] a member of the prominent Sephardic Jewish Carasso family and the son of Isaac Carasso, founded the United States Dannon company and built up the Groupe Danone into a multinational business.

Biography

Daniel Carasso, son of Isaac Carasso, was born in Salonica, Greece, then part of the Ottoman Empire, where his family had lived for four hundred years following Spain's expulsion of Jews. After the Balkan Wars, the family moved to Barcelona in 1916.[2] In 1923, Carasso enrolled in business school in Marseille, France. To become more knowledgeable about yoghurt, he studied bacteriology at the Pasteur Institute.[2]Carasso died at his home in Paris at the age of 103.[2]

Dannon yoghurt

Carasso took over the business in Spain and opened a branch in France in 1929. Forced to flee the Nazis in 1941, he settled in the United States. In 1942, he formed a partnership with two family friends, Joe Metzger, a Swiss-born Spanish businessman, and his son Juan. They bought a small Greek yogurt company, Oxy-Gala, and founded Dannon Milk Products in Bronx, New York.[2]In 1947, Dannon added jam to its yoghurt as a concession to American tastes and succeeded in growing sales to a broad market. He expanded the business into cheeses and other foodstuffs, and bought the American company from Beatrice Foods in 1981, changing the name to Groupe Danone.[3]

Carasso returned to France in 1951.[2]

References

  1. ^ birthdate
  2. ^ a b c d e f Grimes, William (May 20, 2009). "Daniel Carasso, a Pioneer of Yogurt, Dies at 103". The New York Times. Retrieved May 21, 2009.
  3. ^ http://jta.org/news/article/2009/05/25/1005405/daniel-carasso-dannon-yogurt-namesake-dies Daniel Carasso, Dannon yogurt namesake, dies]
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