How To Build a Better YOUgurt

Grade:

12

Teacher:

Viktoriya Yurkiv

Most yogurt brands include the label “Live and Active Cultures” this means that they include living probiotics. These probiotics help support gut health and balance the body's natural process by getting rid of toxins. Probiotics are obtained through fermentation, a method that has been around for thousands of years. This research studies popular yogurt brands and determines the real concentration of “Live and Active Cultures” that each yogurt contains. Yogurts were serial diluted with Phosphate Buffered Saline and the 10-7 CFU/mL sample was tested for probiotic concentration. After varying amounts of incubation time, the samples were run through a colony forming units test. This test accurately determines how many active colonies are present. When incubated for 48 hours, Chobani had the most bacterial growth. Based on the CFU test, after 96 hours Activa had the most amount of active bacteria. Silk Soy has the highest probiotic count after 168 hours. The results show significant levels of bacterial growth after 96 hours. In total, Chobani yogurt has the highest amount of bacteria and showed growth through all three trials. The most expensive yogurt was Siggi’s and this also had a high concentration of probiotics. Thus proving the more expensive the yogurt, the more probiotics it contains. Silk Soy and Silk Almond both had high amounts of probiotic growth during the trials. Therefore the hypothesis that non-dairy yogurts contain low amounts of probiotics was proven false.

Project presentation

Research paper