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Article: Lactic Acid Bacteria
- Article from:
- World of Microbiology and Immunology
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Lactic acid bacteria
Lactic acid
bacteria
compose a group of bacteria that degrade carbohydrate (e.g.,
fermentation
) with the production of lactic acid. Examples of genera that contain lactic acid bacteria include
Streptococcus
,
Lactobacillus
,
Lactococcus
, and
Leuconostoc
.
The production of lactic acid has been used for a long time in food production (e.g., yogurt, cheese, sauerkraut, sausage,). Since the 1970s, the popularity of fermented foods such as kefir, kuniss, and tofu that were formally confined to certain ethnically oriented cuisines, has greatly increased.
Generally, lactic acid bacteria are Gram-positive bacteria that do not form spores and which are able to grow both ...