Determination of fat and protein content in yogurt

Abstract

Generally, yogurt is dairy product which started to be used thousands years ago and is a product which was invented accidentally when people started to transport milk in bags made by animal stomach. Yogurt became a very popular and important food product for a huge number of people and it is still important in the food chain until today. Nowadays, people have produced different types of yogurt in which each one have different characteristics and because of that each one has a different procedure plan. Also, people have produced other types of yogurt based on their flavor, aromas, specific characteristics or years ago people started eating yogurt with the addition of different ingredients and that is something that made people eat yogurt more easily. Yogurt is a dairy product with a very good nutritional value because of the high amounts of probiotics, nutrients such as proteins and some micronutrients such as calcium, magnesium and potassium that each one provide to the human body with a lot of health benefits but, also, because yogurt is a dairy product low in lactose in contrast with milk that makes yogurt a dairy product which can be consumed easily by people with lactose intolerance. According to the legislation about yogurt, Greece and USA have some differences about what yogurt is and how it should be produce, maintained or what substances can be used in the production of yogurt or not. Nowadays, people have created different ways to eat yogurt. Some people eat yogurt as a dessert with honey, fruits or nuts, others are used to eat yogurt as breakfast with cereal and others use yogurt as an ingredient in their food. There are a lot of ways to use yogurt in your daily life. But, it has to be said that in a good quality yogurt two of the characteristics that play a very important role is the fat and protein content. In order to determine the fat and protein content in yogurt there are several methods which are used for the completion of the determination of these two content such as gerber, mojonnier or folch methods for fat, dye-binding, nitrogen determination and formol titration method for protein content.