Yoghurt consistence

Sour milk products are always cultured dairy products with lactic acid bacteria (depending on the food legislation of the respective country). After increasing the dry matter, pasteurisation and incubation of culture, they are processed into yoghurts of set, stirred or drinking consistency, with or without a final heat treatment. 

The production of yoghurt is an increasingly important process in the food industry. Recent investigations have shown that the use of ultrasound as a processing aid can lead to a total reduction of up to 40% in production time [19]. A very important finding in this work was that sonication reduced the normal dependence of the process on the origin of milk. Further it appeared to improve both the consistency and the texture of the product. 

One important class of foods possessing natural flavors that arise via enzymatic and microbial action are "fermented" dairy products. This important food group, consisting of cheeses, yoghurt, buttermilk, sour cream and similar products is very interesting and illustrates the importance of taste and odor in food selection. 

The frequency of use of each of the terms of the CATA question to describe the six yoghurt samples, as well as the ideal yoghurt, is shown in Table 11.3. The ideal yoghurt was described by the terms smooth, homogeneous, creamy, consistency and sweet, which indicates that these were the main drivers of liking for this type of product, as expected (Bayarri et al., 2011 Pohjanheimo and SandeU, 2009). 

Reducing mechanical damage to the consistency during manufacture of stirred yoghurt... 

The production of yoghurt is presented schematically in Fig. 10.21. Yoghurt cultures consist of thermophilic lactic acid bacteria that live together symbiotically (Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus). Incubation is conducted on addition of 1.5-3% of the operating culture at 42-45 °C for about 3 h. The final product has a pH value of about 4-4.2 and contains 0.7-1.1% of lactic acid. Functional foods include yoghurts which have been incubated with probiotics. Probiotics are defined, cultured strains of lactic acid bacteria, which have been isolated from human intestinal flora, e. g., certain lactobacilli and bifidobacteria. On consumption, they are supposed to reach the large intestine and contribute to the formation of an optimal intestinal flora. 

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