A NEW, COMPLETELY DEFINED MEDIUM FOR MEAT LACTOBACILLI

A new defined medium (DML) for meat lactobacilli is presented. This su ccinate buffered medium with as few as 34 components supported good gr owth for 61 strains of typical meat lactobacilli, both isolated from m eat and used as meat starters. For many of the strains tested, cell de nsities in DML were similar to those achieved in MRS medium. The high buffer capacity of DML and the balanced amino acid content allowed gro wth to continue to higher densities than eight other defined media. DM L is compared with a previously published defined medium for Lactobaci llus sake and shown to support higher cell densities of all strains te sted. DML will allow a better determination of the nutritional require ments of different strains of meat lactobacilli as all strains can be tested under the same conditions, and will also be suitable for the st udy of growth kinetics and production of different metabolites.