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A fermentation study of three probiotic Lactobacillus strains was conducted on individual carbohydrates including glucose (GLU) high methoxy pectin (HMP), sugar beet pectin (SBP), fructooligosaccharide (FOS), galactooligosaccharide (GOS), and inulin agave (IA) as the sole carbon sources. It was observed that Lactobacillus bulgaricus (LB), Lactobacillus casei (LC) and Lactobacillus delbruckii (LD) achieved the highest growth rates when they were grown in the presence of GLU, FOS, and IA, but LB had a slower growth rate in these substrates compared to LC and LD. Only LC had a statistically significantly higher growth rate in GOS than in the basal medium which contained no carbohydrate source. Exposure to bile caused a significant reduction of log colony forming units/ml of all 3 strains, with LD grown in HMP exhibiting the highest survival followed by LC and LD grown in GLU, and LD grown on IA. Although HMP was not fermented by the test organisms, results indicate that HMP may in fact help certain probiotic bacteria to survive exposure to bile. Exposure to simulated gastric juices indicated that the studied Lactobacilli are tolerant to simulated gastric juice.

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Control of Listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat (RTE) food products is a significant challenge and improved means for control are needed. In this study, the anti-listerial effects of three lactic acid bacteria (LAB) were investigated. Spot-on-lawn assays demonstrated the largest zones of inhibition against L. monocytogenes were produced by the Pediococcus acidilactici strain, with zone diameters ranging from 13 to 18 mm. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) experiments using cell free supernatant (CFS) from the LAB revealed that while two of the strains were effective at inhibiting L. monocytogenes growth only up to a 1:4 dilution, P. acidilactici was able to inhibit growth up to a 1:256 dilution. Survival assays performed at 7°C determined that the P. acidilactici strain was capable of producing a 4.5 log reduction in L. monocytogenes counts and maintaining the reduction for 21 days. The effectiveness of P. acidilactici was reduced under log phase growth, autoclaving for longer than 15 min (121°C and 15 psi), and treatment with proteinase K (25 mg/mL).