The development of legume-based yogurt by using water kefir as starter culture

According to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (2016), yogurt is defined as "the food produced by culturing one or more optional dairy ingredients (cream, milk, partially skimmed milk, or skim milk, used alone or in combination) with a characterising bacterial cultural that contains the lactic acidproducing bacteria, Lactobacillus bulgaricus, and Streptococcus thermophilus". Microbiological analysis According to East African Standard (East African Community, 2013), the maximum safety level of total microorganisms present in soybean milk is 1 x 103 CFU/mL while the amount of yeast and mould shall not be more than 1 x 102 CFU/mL. Since there is no specific microbiological standard for black bean milk, the microbiological standard of soybean milk was used as a reference for both soybean milk and black bean milk in the present work as their composition are almost the same. The few surviving cells will then continue to proliferate and multiply in the intestinal system which has a higher alkaline condition (Ting and Decosta, 2009). Since the presence of viable lactic acid bacteria is responsible to render numerous benefits, they must be in a high amount in the food product. According to Farnworth (2005), lactic acid bacteria grow best in moderate temperature, which is between 20°C to 40°C, as they are mesophilic bacteria.