Abstract
AbstractKefir grains are multi-species natural starter culture consisting of lactic acid bacteria, acetic acid bacteria, and yeasts, creating complex symbiotic community and widely used in fermented dairy products. The microbiological and chemical composition of kefir grains indicate that they are very complex probiotic, with lactic acid bacteria, generally the predominant microorganisms. Therefore, kefir grains were usually used the starter in fermented dairy products. Our review provides an overview of microbiological characteristics, microstructure, chemical composition of the kefir grains and their use in fermented dairy products.
Highlights
Kefir is a traditional drink obtained via fermentation of milk by kefir grains
This review provides an overview of kefir grains’ microbiological characteristics, microstructure, chemical composition, and their fermented dairy products, which help industries to develop kefir-like products and help researchers for further research
Ertekin and Guzel-Seydim experimented with non-fat milk supplemented with the fat substitutes inulin and Dairy-Lo@ to improve the quality of kefir made with skim milk. They found that while kefir grains fermenting whole fat milk resulted in the best quality kefir, Dairy Lo@ and inulin could be used without any adverse effect for the production of non-fat kefir (Ertekin & Guzel-Seydim, 2010)
Summary
Kefir is a traditional drink obtained via fermentation of milk by kefir grains. The name kefir is derived from the Turkish language word keyif, meaning “good feeling” for the feelings experienced after drinking it (Leite et al, 2015). Kefir grains play a natural starter culture role during the production of kefir and are recovered after the fermentation process by milk straining. The free or immobilized freeze-dried kefir cells was used as a starter culture in hard-type cheese production.
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