In truth there is nothing wrong with the traditional way of fermenting milk – so long as you are using dairy milk; the presence of growth hormones in dairy milk (and other factors vital for the wellbeing of young calves) means it is necessary to pre-treat the milk by heating before fermenting in order to neutralise these factors.

Non-dairy milk however does not contain growth hormones or other ingredients in need of neutralising – in the UK & EU all ingredients must be prominently listed on each carton; non-dairy milk is processed, packaged and sealed under sterile conditions before leaving the factory; this gives two reasons non-dairy milk has no need for pre-treatment.

The routine begins with adding the starter to a fresh batch of milk (stage 4 in the original Traditional scheme), continuing after fermentation to harvesting and straining.