The application of blends of bambaranut and millet vegetable milk in the development of plant-based yoghurt analogues: Proximate composition, physiochemical properties, microbial safety and consumer’s acceptability

This study aimed to produce plant-based yoghurt analogues from the blends of Bambaranut and millet milk. Yoghurt samples were produced from blends of Bambaranut milk and millet milk using Streptococcus thermophillus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus as starter cultures. Yoghurt samples were subjected to chemical, microbiological and organoleptic assessment. The results of the chemical analysis revealed moisture, protein, ash, fat, fibre, carbohydrates and energy contents ranged from 87.61-78.26%, 6.85-3.68%, 0.76-0.59%, 2.70-1.81%, 0.34-0.26%,12.88- 5.60 and 92.94-57.50% respectively Total solids of between 12.39 and 21.74% were obtained with titratable acidity of 0.21, 0.65, 0.21, 0.23, 0.23, 0.25, 0.30 and 0.90%, respectively. The syneresis of the samples ranged from 40.28 to 18.90% while all the samples showed fairly acidic levels. A viscosity of between 250 and 784cp was obtained. The microbiological examination revealed an acceptable level for all the samples. There were observable significant differences in terms of overall acceptability, taste, and flavour between cow milk yoghurt and the yoghurt analogues.