Characterization of starter cultures and nutritional properties of Pediococcus acidilactici NCDC 252: A potential probiotic of dairy origin

Abstract

Probiotics are friendly bacteria that enrich the gut and promote consumers' health. The study of probiotics has recently gained momentum because of their significance as functional and healthy foods (Pandey et al., 2015). Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are a diverse group of industrially significant bacteria that are most commonly used as probiotics, starter cultures, and in food preservation because of their GRAS (generally regarded as safe) status (Hatti-Kaul et al., 2018).Their nutritional, environmental, and adhesional adaptations enable the LAB to survive in a broad range of food matrices viz. vegetables, meats, sourdough bread, wine, dairy products, and human mucosal surfaces (Bintsis, 2018). Though LAB mainly synthesize lactic acid by fermentation of carbohydrates, their use is further extended for food, agricultural, and clinical applications (Capozzi & Grieco, 2021).Starter cultures are selected for microbial preparations that are being used to increase the efficacy of fermentation processes.Microbe's selection for the starter culture is based on their fitness