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Fermentation Atlas

Fermented milk from Worldwide

Plant-based cultured "yoghurts" (family)豆乳ヨーグルト

A plant milk or flour suspension from soy, oats, nuts, coconut or legumes is heated, given sugar because it has no lactose, and fermented by lactic bacteria for a few hours until it sours and gels. Plant proteins set poorly with acid, so most products also rely on heat, homogenising, starch or added thickeners for body. Made in 4 steps over 16 h – 28 days. The longest step, chill and post-ripen, takes 12 h – 28 days (Li S 2024) and runs at 4 °C (Li S 2024). Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus and Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus, L. paracasei and Lactiplantibacillus plantarum do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step12 h – 28 daysReported[li2024][montemurro2021]Chill and post-ripen
Temperature4 °CReported[li2024][montemurro2021]Chill and post-ripen
AciditypH 4.6Measured[li2024][montemurro2021]Ferment until set
Fully documentedFermented milk16 h – 28 daysMore fermented milk

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe amounts are the soy yoghurt recipe tested by Li and colleagues in 2024; it used gelatin, so it was not vegan. Other bases follow the same pattern with their own thickeners.
1 part soybeans to 4 parts waterSoybeans, soaked 12 h (1:3 in water), ground and filtered into soy milk[li2024]
7 %Sucrose · Added because plant milks have no lactose[li2024]
8 % (v/v)Lactic culture[li2024]
0.2–0.8 %Gelatin (in the trial) · Commercial vegan products use starch, pectin or other plant thickeners instead[li2024][montemurro2021]
Starterdefined-culture

Total time across the recorded steps: 16 h – 28 days

Start
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85–90 °C

What changes: The plant milk is heated, which kills stray microbes and helps its proteins form a network

Step 1 of 4
Make and heat the plant base
Time
10–30 min
Reported
Temperature
85–90 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
S. thermophilus
L. delbrueckii
L. acidophilus
L. rhamnosus
Lactic acid bacteria

Output: heated plant base.

Flavour
beany (soy), nutty, cereal
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

heat kills unwanted microbes before the culture goes in

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

What makes this one different

Plant yoghurts must be given sugar because plant milks have no lactose, and their proteins do not gel with acid the way casein does, so heat, homogenising and thickeners do much of the setting that milk protein does in dairy yoghurt.

Boundary
Fermented soy milk overlaps with the soy ferments

Related ferments

Variants

  • Soy yoghurtThe most common type; soy protein sets as the acid builds, but beany flavour is a known problem.
  • Oat and other cereal yoghurtsCereal starch is gelatinised for body; exopolysaccharide-producing bacteria can thicken them.
  • Almond, cashew and coconut yoghurtsLow in protein; need homogenising, heat or added thickeners.

Safety

The base is heated before the culture is added, fermented to about pH 4.6 and kept at 4 °C.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Kellogg was the first company to make and market a soy yoghurt alternative, fermented with Lactobacillus acidophilus. Demand for plant-based yoghurts has grown quickly in recent years.

  1. [montemurro2021] Montemurro M., Pontonio E., Coda R., Rizzello C.G. 2021, Plant-based alternatives to yogurt, state-of-the-art and perspectives of new biotechnological challenges, Foods 10(2):316paper
  2. [li2024] Li S., Hu M., Wen W., Zhang P., Yu W., Fan B., Wang F. 2024, Effect of different strains on quality characteristics of soy yogurt, physicochemical, nutritional, safety features, sensory, and formation mechanism, Food Chemistry X 101359paper