Use of lactic acid bacteria for preparing fermented food products with increased natural sweetness

Abstract

The dairy industry today faces a problem of providing an alternative to adding sweeteners to fermented milk products in order to achieve the desired sweet taste without the added calories. Furthermore, it would be highly advantageous to establish a method for reducing lactose in fermented milk products to a level which is acceptable for lactose-intolerant consumers. The above problems have been solved by providing mutantstrains and mutantsubsp.strains that excrete glucose to the milk when the milk is inoculated and fermented with suchstrains andsubsp,strains. Thus, the present invention relates to strains ofandsubsp,which secrete glucose to the milk substrate during fermentation, as well as to mixed cultures comprising thestrains and thesubsp,strains, starter cultures comprising the strains and dairy products manufactured with the cultures. The present method also relates to use of the strains for decreasing the lactose content of a fermented food product and for boosting growth of the probiotic BB-12®.