FAQ

Part of our continuous improvement program, the Yogourmet® product range has been reviewed and improved.

While the core characteristics such as taste remain untouched, the product composition, consistency and packaging have been updated.

After a careful review of our products, one of the points that stood out was the unnecessary excess of excipient* in the product composition.

Leveraging our expertise in culture manufacturing, we increased the culture concentration to reduce the excipient by 40% while maintaining the product bacterial count and performance, and decreasing the sachet weight from 5g to 3g.

Rest assured this change will not affect your home-making process, the directions remain the same : use 1 sachet per liter/quart of milk to produce your delicious yogurts & kefirs !

*An excipient is a substance formulated alongside the active ingredient to aid the manufacturing process, and to protect, support and enhance the stability of the product over shelf-life.

To flavor your yogurt use compotes, jams, fresh fruits, fruit salads, honey, maple syrup, vanilla or other. It’s better to add these ingredients at serving time, adding them before the yogurt incubation process would not provide satisfactory results.

To flavor your kefir use honey, maple syrup or fruit puree. You can also enjoy homemade kefir mixed in a smoothie with fresh fruits. It’s better to add these ingredients at serving time, adding them before the kefir incubation process would not provide satisfactory results.

It is possible to make yogurt and kefir with certain brands of soy beverages, please use the link below for a complete list of soy beverages that are compatible with our starters.

Soy beverages list

If you are in the US, please refer to this chart.

It is preferable to previously heat the milk up to 82°C/180°F to (re)pasteurized it and thus optimize the texture and the taste of the yogurt or kefir.

The goal is to destroy unwanted bacteria that could prevent the yogurt or kefir from setting or that could grow beside the good bacteria contained in the Yogourmet starter.

We highly recommend to keep the different Yogourmet starters refrigerated or frozen in order to maintain a high bacterial concentration.

When kept refrigerated, the different Yogourmet starters keep their freshness an additional year, passed the expiry date, and more when kept frozen.

When kept at a temperature of 25°C/77°F beyond few weeks, the different Yogourmet starters could lose some of their bacterial concentration and then require a longer incubation period.

Yes, Yogourmet products are gluten-free.

Yes, Yogourmet products are Halal certified. Certificat available here

Yes, Yogourmet products are Kosher certified. Certificat available here.

Of course! Greek yogurt is originally a regular yogurt from which the whey (yellowish liquid) was drained out in a cheesecloth. It also seems that Greek yogurt can be made with a combination of milk and cream or with cream only.

For fastest results, instead of straining the yogurt you can also add 1 cup of milk powder (250 g) and 1 pouch of gelatin (7 g) for 2 litres of milk before the yogurt incubation. The result will sensitively be the same.

We have also made yogurt with our original yogurt starter, milk and/or cream:

Half milk (2%) and half coffee cream (10%)… has worked.
Coffee cream (10%)… has worked.
Table cream (15%)… has worked (remained liquid after the incubation process – has set when refrigerated).
Country style cream (35%)… has not worked.

Focusing on the main active bacterial cultures and yeasts, our Kefir starter consists of L. lactis, L. cremoris, L. diacetylactis, L. acidophilus, S. cerevisiae, and K. lactis as well as lactic yeast strains.

All those different microorganisms participate in the elaboration of a fresh, thirsty, active, and delectable fermented milk. Every species delivers a specific characteristic or flavor, contributing to the unique aspect of kefir.

When raw milk is used to make yogurt, it is not obvious to obtain a satisfying result.

Indeed, since the milk is not homogenized, the fats separate from the rest of the milk. You would then obtain a yogurt that is firm on the top and lumpy/liquid in the bottom, as the fats are directly related to the texture.

No. The milk contained into the different Yogourmet starters comes from Canada, where growth hormones are not allowed. Also, milk that would be produced by a cow having an antibiotic treatment would be rejected automatically.

These methods are not perfect since the yogurt made with Yogourmet original yogurt starter needs to incubate during 4-4 1/2 hours at a constant temperature of 42-44°C (108-112°F). A lower temperature would prevent the bacteria from growing, on the other hand an higher temperature would kill the bacteria.

Several customers following the SCD diet, which recommends to incubate yogurt for about 24 hours, do use the Yogourmet Multi electric yogurt maker. Though the appliance has not been designed to respond to these criteria, it will easily maintain a constant incubation temperature of 42-44°C/108-112°F for about 24 hours.

Shipping the product unrefrigerated should not be an issue. The storage at ambient temperature for transportation purpose should not exceed 2 weeks. Therefore if the shipping took less than two weeks, it should be ok.

The keep refrigerated statement on the box is for storage.

Maltodextrin is a food/dietary additive produced from vegetable starch and considered Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) by the US Food and Drug Administration. It is part of the routine diet of 98.6% of US consumers and found as a component in a large majority of commercial nutrition formulas shown to be efficient for Crohn’s disease management by human randomised controlled trials (RCT). Additionally, a study revealed that there was no difference in the remission rate for people taking the formulas with and without maltodextrin.

The maltodextrin found in our Yogourmet® starters is from maize origin, of high quality, and with strict microbial specifications. Keep in mind that the maltodextrin content in 1 sachet is less than 1.5 g for Yogourmet® Yogurt and Yogourmet® Kefir starters. Once in one liter of yogurt or kefir, its concentration is therefore less than 1.5 mg/g or 0.15%, (0.15 g per 100 g serving).

Read more about maltodextrin in Yogourmet® starters’ new formula here.