The Fermentation Of Yogurt

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Throughout history, humans have found countless new ways to ferment the resources available to them. The benefits of this process can be encountered all around us in the world. Many don’t know the coffee they drink in the morning and the yogurt they bought from the grocery store experienced fermentation of some sort. Fermentation is the partial degradation of sugars without the use of oxygen, causing it to be called anaerobic respiration. The fermentation of yogurt proves to be a process I deeply admire, as I love the taste it produces. Being a dairy product, yogurt comes from the fermentation of bacteria known as “yogurt cultures.” There are two types of yogurt that come from this process. There is the set type of yogurt that contains fruit at the bottom of the mixture and the swiss type that has fruit blended into it. Regardless of the type, yogurt always contains a delicious taste that is driven by lactic acid fermentation. …show more content…

These two cultures are used to ferment lactose, or milk sugar, in order to produce lactic acid. As the lactic acid continues to increase, the pH levels in the yogurt lower. This helps cause milk clots that begin to form the yogurt. The fat that comes in yogurt comes from the amount of milk utilized in the mixture. Thus, the more milk added in the more fatty the product will be. As previously stated, the metabolic pathway of yogurt is lactic acid fermentation. This pathway is where glucose or other six carbon molecules are broken down and converted into cellular energy. The starting point for this remains glycolysis, where glucose is split into pyruvate, followed by the reduction of pyruvate to lactate. The lactic acid formed during this process allows the changes to

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