Elaine writes:
According to Dept. of Agriculture dogma, additional milk solids including lactose and protein are added to commercial yogurt and then subjected to the short fermentation. Because of so much lactose in it from the very beginning, what happens is that the little good guys (bulgaricus and thermophilus start doing their work and when they have converted half of the lactose in the original vat, there is lactic acid produced and the acidity (acid=acidity)(the pH) reaches a critical point of about 3.5. At this point, our little guys' enzymes cannot work because of the acidity and there is still 50% more lactose remaining (remember they added milk solids at the start). You end up with as much, if not more, lactose as in a glass of milk. Subjecting the yogurt to more time would not change anything. The cultures' machinery (enzymes) cannot work in such an acid environment.

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