RISE FUNGUS ACTIVITY IN DIFFERENT FERMENTATION MEDIUMS FOR ITS APPLICATION IN DAIRY INDUSTRY

Nowadays the market of fermented milk products is expanding. To extend the product range specialists use not only traditional starter cultures, but natural symbiotic starter cultures as well. They belong to genus zoogloea, kefir grains, used to produce a fermented milk product (kefir) popular among the customers. Scientists take interest in other bacteria belonging to genus zoogloea as well, in particular, rise fungus, which is not currently used to produce fermented milk products. The authors of the article studied the activity of the rise fingus in different fermentation media containing sucrose or lactose. The authors used the following fermentation media: sucrose aqueous solutions with sucrose mass concentration 2,0-8,5%, curd whey, pasteurized skimmed milk, including reconstituted milk, and sterilized whole milk. They found out that rise fungus develops well not only in sucrose aqueous solutions with different sucrose concentration, but also in lactose containing media. However, the intensity of its activity differs in the given media. The presence of lactic acid in the fermentation medium slows down the bacteria development process significantly. Experiments with different milk heat treatment modes revealed that rise fungus develops well in pasteurized milk, both in whole and skimmed milk including reconstituted milk.The activity of this starter culture in sterilized whole milk decreases significantly. The authors developed the method of the starter production on milk base which includes the preparation of the primary starter based on the zero starter that consists of fermented milk and rise fungus.