Effect of Using Propionic Acid Bacteria as an Adjunct Culture in Yogurt Production

Propionibacteria are able to produce a wide variety of food components beneficial to human health. In this study, yogurt was produced by using the adjunct starter cultures Propionibacterium jensenii B1264 and Propionibacterium thoenii (jensenii) P126. Although the total solids and protein contents of the yogurts did not show any significant differences, titratable acidity of the control sample (YC-380) remained lower than that of Propionibacterium spp.-supplemented yogurts during 15 d of storage. The yogurts produced by YC-380 + P126 cultures had the firmest structure (0.26 N). The highest acetaldehyde (29.35 mg/kg) content was obtained with yogurt made with YC-380 + P126 + B1264 on d 1. The addition of propionibacteria to yogurt did not have any negative effect on the counts of Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus in yogurt. During the first week of storage, propionibacteria counts remained high, suggesting that yogurt provided a good environment for these organisms. This new product would provide not only beneficial health effects, but also a new alternative product to plain set-type yogurt.