Although many consumers would say that “flavor rules,” texture is close behind. When it comes to cultured dairy products, smooth and creamy is always the target, and textural attributes such as grainy, gel-like, shrunken, weak or ropy are typically considered defects.
Most product developers spend time on ingredients and/or processes to help prevent these defects. Understanding the basics of cultured dairy product processing for products such as yogurt, sour cream, kefir, crema and others is a good place to start in understanding how the process contributes to their texture.