Efeito prebiótico do mel sobre o crescimento e viabilidade de Bifidobacterium spp. e Lactobacillus spp. em leite

to be considered prebiotic, a microorganism must fulfill a series of requirements and the maintenance of viability is a major one. probiotic cultures of lactobacillus spp. and bifidobacterium spp. were cultured in 12% (w/v) reconstituted nonfat dry milk containing 3% (w/v) of pasteurized honey. controls without honey were prepared. all cultures remained viable for up 46 days at 7 °c conforming to the regulation requirement. the higher cell number of l. casei-01 and l. casei shirota (>9.0 log10 cfu.ml-1) were maintained in the presence of honey. the titratable acidity produced by these cultures was of 1.44%. on the 46th day of storage, the number of l. acidophilus sacco？ viable cells in the presence of honey was significantly higher (p < 0.05) compared to the control. considering the overall storage period, honey exerted significant positive effect (p < 0,05) only on bifidobacterium cultures. the lowest growth and acidity on the 46th day was observed with bf. lactis bb12, being 7,63 log10 cfu.g-1 and 0,61% of acidity in the presence of honey and 6.11 log cfu.ml-1 and 0,30% of acidity in the control. differently, bf. lactis sacco？ cultures reached counts of 9,11 log10 cfu.ml-1 and produced 1.11% acidity.