Abstract
Copyright: © 2012 Ntougias S. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Lactic acid fermentation is an important process used in the production of several food and beverages. Optimization of lactic acid fermentation improves product quality by positively affecting preservation, organoleptic characteristics and nutritional value [1]. Numerous attempts were made to identify novel lactic acid bacteria as starters in order to achieve effective monitoring of the fermentation process. Starter cultures of lactic acid bacteria can provide long-term safe storage, contributing highly to the improvement of flavor and the development of pleasant organoleptic characteristics [2]. Lactic acid bacteria act protectively against food-borne pathogens, exhibiting probiotic properties [3,4]. Several criteria have been proposed for the selection of lactic acid bacteria as starters, e.g. fermentation type (homo and hetero-fermentation), halotolerance and bacteriocin production [2]. Besides, attention was drawn to the role of nonstarter lactic acid bacteria in ripening of fermented products [5]. Both PEDIOCOCCI and homofermentative LACTOBACILLI, as nonstarter lactic acid bacteria, were found to be involved in cheese ripening [6].
Highlights
Lactic acid fermentation is an important process used in the production of several food and beverages
Depending on the end products formed during the fermentation process, lactic acid bacteria are divided into homofermentative and heterofermentative
Since 2001, lactate fermentation was defined as an acidic microbial process, the taxonomic description of the genus Alkalibacterium [10] revealed that lactate fermentation can be achieved under alkaline conditions [11,12]
Summary
Lactic acid fermentation is an important process used in the production of several food and beverages. Numerous attempts were made to identify novel lactic acid bacteria as starters in order to achieve effective monitoring of the fermentation process. Depending on the end products formed during the fermentation process, lactic acid bacteria are divided into homofermentative and heterofermentative.
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