Development starter cultures for production functional beverages from cow's whey

Abstract

Organoleptic characteristics of fermented dairy beverages largely depend on the proper selection of bacteria used for the construction of starter cultures and purpose of this study was to evaluate activity of eight two-component starter cultures in cow’s whey. During fermentation, some degree of symbiotic relationship betweenthe corresponding species of the genus Lactobacillus or Bifidobacterium bifidum and Streptococcus salivarius ssp. thermophilus was noticed, as fermentation time has been significantly reduced, in comparison with single strains. All fermented whey beverages had satisfactory organoleptic characteristics and total bacterial count was greater than 106cfu/ml, so they fulfil criteria to call them probiotic beverages.