Abstract
Each step in the development of probiotic consumer products sorts many bacteria out. For a strain to be used with successful technical application, a favorable taste, survival during production of starter cultures, products, and during shelf life until consumption is necessary. Lactobacillus paracasei sp. paracasei isolate F19 ( Lactobacillus F19) is a promising probiotic bacteria studied in laboratory and pilot scale and in clinical trials. It has been considered possible to industrialize the production of Lactobacillus F19 as a starter culture since it gave a high yield. In fermentations together with yoghurt cultures, Lactobacillus F19 was less affected by traditional starter cultures tested than some other probiotic bacteria, indicating a strong ability to withstand and survive competition from other bacteria. Lactobacillus F19 enhanced the stability, viscosity, and sensoric properties of yoghurt products indicating possible use both in products with and without fruit preparations and flavors. All tested prebiotics were fermented by Lactobacillus F19. That finding supports a possible successful combination of these prebiotics with Lactobacillus F19 in products. Lactobacillus F19 survived very well during the normal storage time for each product in a wide range of products produced in pilot plant scale. When preparing products from powder products Lactobacillus F19 survived up to a product temperature of about 50°C. Lactobacillus F19 showed good survival in most of the tested foods and no negative effects on organoleptical properties were observed but in some cases rather the opposite.