Exopolysaccharides Producing Lactic Acid Cultures for Indigenous Fermented Milk Products

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are widely used in the dairy and food industry since time immemorial. Apart from production of lactic acid, flavoring compounds and bacteriocin like sub­stances, several strains of LAB secrete extracellular polysaccharide in favorable environment such as milk. The term exopolysaccharide (EPS) is used to de­scribe extracellular polysaccharide either attached as capsule with bacterial cell wall or liberated into the medium as ropy polysaccharide (Sutherland 1972). The EPS plays an important role in the im­provement of physical properties of fer­mented milks, which act like a food sta­bilizer, viscosifier, emulsifier or gelling agent providing a product with natural thickness (Ruas-Madiedo and Reyes-Gavilan 2005). However the in situ EPS pro­duction is better approach as compared to use of crude and/or purified EPS in the manu­facture of a variety of cultured dairy products (Dolyeres et al., 2005; Behare et al., 2009a). The in situ EPS pro­duction is extensively used in the manu­facture of yoghurt, drinking yoghurt, cheese, cultured cream and milk-based dessert.