Exopolysaccharides Producing Lactic Acid Cultures for Indigenous Fermented Milk Products
Exopolysaccharides Producing Lactic Acid Cultures for Indigenous Fermented Milk Products
Abstract
Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are widely used in the dairy and food industry since time immemorial. Apart from production of lactic acid, flavoring compounds and bacteriocin like substances, several strains of LAB secrete extracellular polysaccharide in favorable environment such as milk. The term exopolysaccharide (EPS) is used to describe extracellular polysaccharide either attached as capsule with bacterial cell wall or liberated into the medium as ropy polysaccharide (Sutherland 1972). The EPS plays an important role in the improvement of physical properties of fermented milks, which act like a food stabilizer, viscosifier, emulsifier or gelling agent providing a product with natural thickness (Ruas-Madiedo and Reyes-Gavilan 2005). However the in situ EPS production is better approach as compared to use of crude and/or purified EPS in the manufacture of a variety of cultured dairy products (Dolyeres et al., 2005; Behare et al., 2009a). The in situ EPS production is extensively used in the manufacture of yoghurt, drinking yoghurt, cheese, cultured cream and milk-based dessert.
