lactis is known to produce exopolysaccharides
(Prasanna et al., 2014) and higher viable numbers
of Bifidobacterium was observed in rice yogurt
than in plain yogurt in the present study (Figure
2). Therefore, the amount of exopolysaccharides
production by bifidobacteria might have been high
in rice yogurts than in plain yogurts. Similar to the
findings from the current study, increasing trend in
WHC during storage of control and calcium fortified
fruit yogurts has previously been reported by Singh
and Muthukumarappan (2008). Increase in WHC
as the storage time progresses could also be due
to re-absorption of whey back into the yogurt gel
(Cassarotti, 2014). In contrast, Küçükçetin et al.
(2011) reported the decreasing trend in WHC of yogurt
gel during 15 days of storage at 4oC. Previous studies
also have reported that the effective immobilization
of the aqueous phase by the gelatin in the yogurt
could significantly reduce the whey separation from
yogurt and gelatin may induce the formation of a
gel network with the sodium casemate in the yogurt
mixture (Lal et al., 2006; Supavititpatana et al.,
2008). In the present study gelatin was added into the
yogurt as a stabilizer during manufacturing and this
might also have been a reason to observe increasing
WHC in yogurts during the storage.