LAUSR

Continuous monitoring of milk fermentation process during industrial yogurt production using pH metres is often cumbersome and inefficient technique. A simple, cost‐effective and accurate alternative sensing technology is required for real‐time monitoring. In this paper, we report real‐time continuous monitoring of milk fermentation process and determine the fermentation end point during yogurt production using highly‐sensitive fibre Bragg grating (FBG) stress sensor. Milk fermentation is monitored in real‐time by analysing the shift in the Bragg wavelength of FBG stress sensor inserted into the milk corresponding to time‐dependent gradual increase in applied stress on FBG stress sensor because of yogurt coagulation. Required sensitivities for an FBG sensor used for milk having 0% and 2.5% fat are around 3.03 and 3.01 pm/Pa, respectively. A proof of the concept of a smart alarm system (AS) for determination of the fermentation end point of yogurt is discussed in this work. This study presents a cost‐effective, simple and non‐destructive method for continuous real‐time monitoring of milk fermentation process and determination of fermentation end point for small as well as large‐scale production of yogurt.