Co-culturing of probiotics influences the microbial and physico-chemical properties but not sensory quality of fermented dairy drink made from goats’ milk

• Probiotics were able to retain satisfactory viability during storage at 4 °C.
• Acidity of all fermented goat’s milk samples increased over storage.
• Sensory qualities of fermented milk samples produced using different probiotic cultures did not significantly differ.

Seven different types of fermented drinking milk were made from goats’ milk using various culture compositions of Lactobacillus acidophilus LA-5, Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis BB-12 and novel putative probiotic Propionibacterium jensenii 702. Probiotic viability, physico-chemical and sensory properties of fermented milk were measured during 3 weeks of storage at 4 °C. All three probiotics were able to maintain high viability (>107 cfu mL−1) during fermentation and subsequent storage regardless of the culture composition in goats’ milk without major antagonistic effects. Acidity of all fermented milk samples increased during storage, however there were no significant differences among preparations for organoleptic properties. Generally, lower sensory acceptability was recorded for the samples stored for 3 weeks than the respective fresh products.