Characterisation of lactic acid bacteria isolated from fermented milk "laban".

The technological properties of 96 lactic acid bacteria isolated from Lebanese traditional fermented milk "laban" were characterised. They were classified by phenotypic and biochemical analyses as Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus, thus indicating that laban is a fermented milk similar to yogurt. Most strains of L. bulgaricus (87.5%) exhibited a high acidification activity, whereas strains of streptococci showed low acidification ability. 33.3% of streptococci strains and 25% of lactobacilli strains displayed similar acidification performances as European strains. Results obtained for syneresis, texture and rheological parameters led us to consider that isolated strains were not low polymer-producing strains. Some of them displayed interesting characteristics such as low syneresis and high values for rheological parameters. The major flavour compounds found in pure cultures were acetaldehyde, acetone, 2-butanone, dimethyl disulfide, acetoin, 2,3-butanedione, 2,3-pentanedione, and acetic, hexanoic and butanoic acids. Acetaldehyde (7.4%) and organic acids (48.3%) were mainly produced by L. bulgaricus strains, whereas streptococci cultures contained high relative levels of 2,3-butanedione and acetoin, which represented around 82% of the total flavour compounds. Finally, strains isolated from laban samples exhibited different technological properties than those used in yogurt production, thus conferring specific characteristics to this product.