Tools in the development of future starter cultures for fermented milk

The consumers constantly look for innovative fermented milk products with new features and high quality. This increases the requirements to the performance of yoghurt starter cultures and creates the need for new speedy tools for starter culture development including valid and fast methods for characterisation of the functional properties of fermented milk. Acidification activity / speed, texture and flavour are the most important parameters when producing fermented milk products. A model has been developed to improve the selection and composition of strains to get fast cultures for, for example, yoghurt production. The model provides the benefits of shortening the development time and gaining precise knowledge of culture growth. Important properties for texture are the sensory evaluated mouth thickness, gel firmness and ropiness, which we have related to instrumental texture methods. For flavour characterisation, sensory profiling has been used to select and quantify the most important properties. An investigation on which parameters that influence yoghurt flavour has been performed.