The addition of prebiotics such as oligofructose to yogurt can result in a product with consumer benefits,
since they stimulate growth of benefic bacteria present in the intestine and also provide a low calorie
product, since one can add less sugar to the formulation due to their sweetening power. This work aimed
to evaluate the effect of increasing concentrations of oligofructose addition on physicochemical, rheological
and microbiological characteristics of non-flavored yogurt. Furthermore, it was investigated the reaction
of consumers with the use of the survival analysis methodology. The addition of oligofructose
showed no influence on the pH, proteolysis or the viability of Streptococcus thermophilus or Lactobacillus
bulgaricus during 28 days of refrigerated storage (p > 0.05). According to rheological measurements the
yogurt supplemented with oligofructose was characterized as a weak gel, showing thixotropic and
pseudoplastic behavior. Survival analysis was used to investigate consumer responses with respect to different
levels of supplementation of plain yogurt with oligofructose (0%, 2%, 4%, 6% and 8% wt. v1). Using
the survival analysis and considering a rejection by 25% of the consumers, the level of oligofructose that
can be added to the yogurt was shown to be 2.58% wt. v1.