Comparative studies of yoghurt produced from animal and selected imitation vegetable milk

In this study, the possibility of producing yoghurt from both plant and animal sources was explored. Hence, a comparative study was carried out on the yoghurt samples that were produced from cow milk (CM), oat flakes (OM) and African yam beans ( Sphenostylis stenocarpa ) (AYB). The physicochemical and organoleptic properties as well as the microbial stability of the yoghurt samples were analyzed using standard methods. The proximate compositions (moisture, fat, protein, fibre, ash and carbohydrate) of the samples were 85.50-86.45, 0.25–2.95, 5.42–6.10, 0.09–1.18, 0.94 − 0.88 and 3.56–7.43%, respectively while their total solids ranged between 13.55 and 14.50 for the three yoghurt samples CM, OM and AYB, respectively. The proximate results showed that all the chemical compositions, except their ash content, significantly (p < 0.05) differed in all the three samples. The ranges of the total viable bacteria count of the sample CM, OM and AYB were 1.58-3.0×10 9 , 1.95-4.0×10 8 and 5.50–1.1×10 9 cfu/ml during the 14 days of refrigeration storage, respectively. A decrease in the count was noticed on the third day thereby leading to the deterioration of the yoghurt samples and reduction in the nutritional composition with storage. The sensory evaluation results showed no significant difference (p ≤ 0.05) in the aroma, taste and overall acceptability of the three yoghurt samples. This work has shown the potential of vegetable milk as an alternative source of milk in the manufacture of yoghurt with improved nutritional values and consumers acceptability.