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Introduction
Breast milk is considered superior over any other modified infant formula due to its inherent properties and advantages. In the absence or with insufficient production of breast milk, various modified milk formulae developed may be nutritionally adequate but could not confer any protection to the infants. Technological innovations made in the commercial infant milk powder have not been able to meet the critical nutritional and physiological needs of infants ([40] Thompkinson and Mathur, 1995). Under this circumstance, various cultured milk products developed for infants and children can be a practical and suitable substitute ([35] Sarkar, 2003).
Lactobacilli is the normal resident of gastro-intestinal tract ([29] Mitsuoka, 1992) and capable of restoring the normal microbial balance in the intestine ([17] Garvie et al. , 1984), whose application during the manufacture of cultured milk products are proposed to exert "probiotic" effects in humans ([18] Gilliland, 1989). Bifidobacteria based cultured milk products may be beneficial as a probiotic for improving the intestinal flora and for maintaining the healthy intestinal conditions of infants during and after weaning ([15] Fukushima et al. , 1997; [16] Fukushima and Yamano, 2003).
Propionibacterium spp. is reported to synthesise vitamins ([38] Skupin et al. , 1974), exhibit antagonism ([1] Al-Zoreky et al. , 1993) and possess β-D-galactosidase activity ([25] Kujawski et al. , 1990). Inclusion of Propionibacterium freudenreichii subsp. shermanii with Lactobacillus acidophilus resulted in a product, which was more efficacious than acidophilus milk in preventing the gastro-intestinal disease in infants ([30] Nabukhotnyi et al. , 1983). [34] Reddy (1989) suggested associative application of propionic acid bacteria with Lactobacillus acidophilus , Bifidobacterium bifidum and Leuconostoc citrovorum during the preparation of dietary supplements for enhanced viability of these organisms in the human intestinal tract. The objective of the present investigation was to evaluate the effect of incorporation of B. bifidum NDRI and P. freudenreichii subsp. shermanii MTCC 1371 along with L. acidophilus R on the technological and dietetic behaviour of starter cultures and to assess their suitability for the manufacture of probiotic acidophilus milk for infant feeding.
Materials and methods
Type of milk
Reconstituted skim milk (SM) [0.5 per cent fat and 7.64 per cent solid non-fat (SNF)] was used for evaluating rate of acid production by starter cultures. Formulated milk (FM) was...