STARTER CULTURES FOR MILK FERMENTATION AND THEIR CHARACTERISTICS

This paper reviews the different types of fermented milks and their mi croflora and includes recent work on yogurt, soft cheese and buttermil ks, kefir and koumiss. There is considerable interest in the 'new' hea lth promoting products which are now available. These are also discuss ed in the light of some recent findings on the ability to lower the bl ood cholesterol concentration and stimulate the immune response. Biote chnology techniques are being developed for many of the lactic acid ba cteria involved in dairy fermentations, and in the final section some potential improvements are briefly reviewed.