STARTER CULTURES COMPOSITIONS FOR DAIRY BABY FOOD PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGIES

Aim. Creating the fermenting compositions of bifidus bacteria and lactobacilli cultures to develop innovative technologies for fermented milk baby foods with high probiotic and antagonist properties. Methods. The cultivation of bifidobacteria and lactobacilli starter cultures took place in sterilized milk environment enriched with fructose. To determine acidity the titration and potentiometric techniques were used; to assess the clot’s water retention capacity the centrifugation method was used; to determine the fermented products viscosity – the assessment of the clot’s discharge delay was applied when leaving the pipette; to estimate the number of viable lactobacilli cells the sterilized milk inoculation technique was applied, for determining the bifidus bacteria viable cells number – the thioglycolic medium inoculation technique, and to assess the bifidus bacteria and lactobacilli cultures antagonistic activity the wells method was used; the proteolytic activity was assessed under the sum of three free amino acids, when tyrosine-based calculation. Results. The technological, probiotic, antagonistic and proteolytic properties of the bifidus bacteria and lactobacilli bacterial concentrates for direct application, presented in the Ukrainian market, have been defined. Basing on performed studies, for baby fermented milk products food technology the use of monocultures L. acidophilus La-5, monocultures B. animalis Bb-12 and monocultures’ mix L. lactis ssp. lactis + L. lactis ssp. сremoris + L. lactis ssp diacetylactis + L. mesenteroides (SC) is recommended. Recommended ratio between SC : L. acidophilus La-5 : B. animalis Bb-12 in the fermentation starter composition should be set as 1.0: 0.1: 1.0 (initial cultures concentration at inoculation – 1×106 1×105 and 1×106 CFU/cm3, respectively), therefore, the obtained cultured dairy product bears the regular physical and chemical parameters, high probiotic and anti-allergic properties. Conclusions. Developed fermentation starter cultures composition using the direct application of lacto- and bifidus bacteria concentrates, allow the production of fermented dairy baby food products (beverages and protein products) with high probiotic, hypoallergenic and antagonist properties