The Production of Yoghurt with Probiotic Bacteria Isolated from Infants in Jordan

Cultures of presumptive lactobacilli and bifidobacteria were isolated from eight infants living in Amman, Jordan. After screening for the classic properties of probiotic organisms, three promising isolates were identified as Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus gasseri and Bifidobacterium infantis. These strains were employed to make yoghurt and, in order to achieve a short production time, a two-stage fermentation procedure was used with Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus providing the rapid acidification. Yoghurts containing counts of > 1.0 x 108 cfu ml-1 of the individual probiotics and high counts of the traditional species from yoghurt were produced, and storage trials at 4oC showed that the viability of the probiotic cultures was retained over 15 days.