A Sustainable Method: Production of the Fermented Rice Milk Yogurt by Using Three Efficient Lactic Acid Bacteria

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) have long been used as starters in non-dairy cereal fermentation, as they aid in the production of products such as yoghurt and cheese. Broken rice milk is a plant-based milk alternative that is high in carbs and low in fat, providing excellent nutritional value to human users. The current study intends to ferment broken rice milk supplemented with 6% skim milk using three Lactobacillus strains for the development of yoghurt products, as well as to evaluate the growth, changes in physio-chemical properties, and sensory qualities of the yoghurt produced. Lactobacillus bulgaricus, Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus acidophilus, and a commercial yoghurt culture consortium fermented broken rice milk after 8 h. Rather than employing L. acidophilus or a commercial yogurt culture consortia, L. bulgarics was the most efficient starter for yoghurt manufacturing, followed by L. casei. L. bulgaricus had the highest viability counts of 8.5 Log CFU/mL, 0.18 specific growth rate, and 3.78 doubling time. Furthermore, it produces a significant reduction in pH to 4.3 and increases total titratable acidity to 0.09 percent with high overall acidity values of 1.4 mg/L of acetic and lactic acid contents. The maximum acidification rate (Vmax) was 0.2125, the maximum acidification time (Tmax) was 4 h, and the time to reach pH 4.6 (Te) was 5 to 8 h. As a result, L. bulgaricus was chosen as the most efficient isolate for the production of fermented rice milk yoghurt. More research is needed, however, to investigate the new rice-based yoghurt product’s sensory qualities as well as its toxicological effects on normal and malignant human cells.