We believe that production of yoghurt is a science. Therefore, we apply a scientific approach toward this process. In order to demonstrate that these are not just words, we have established a modern Centre for Research and Development, where in-depth studies related to the industrial production of starters for traditional dairy products and development of new technologies have taken place for almost half a century already
These studies are of national importance and play a key role in the development of the dairy processing industry in Bulgaria. Of course, this kind of success would be impossible without the people behind it. These are the highly qualified researchers and specialists employed by one of the 8 laboratories of the research centre of “LB Bulgaricum”.
To guarantee quality the raw milk purchased, dairy products, bacterial (starter) cultures and cheese yeast need a biochemical analysis.
Besides, the biochemical indices in the production process and the properties of detergents and disinfectants for the manufacturing equipment, storage and cooling spaces as well as the efficiency of their use are constantly monitored.
The main activities conducted in the Laboratory are:
Complete microbiological analysis of raw milk; raw materials and supplies; dairy and lactic acid products; starter cultures; cheese yeast;
Monitoring parameters from the processing lines in the production and storage of starter cultures, dairy and lactic acid products;
Monitoring the hygiene of the personnel, equipment, surfaces, air, and water in the production, storage and cooling spaces;
As standards require, every sample is monitored from the time it is received for analysis until the time the results are delivered and a certificate is prepared.
We, LB Bulgaricum, have a true variety of bacteria. The company owns a unique collection of lactic acid bacteria, which was maintained, developed and enriched in the laboratory “Culture Collection and characterization”. Currently, the laboratory has more than 1000 strains of lactic acid microorganisms, part of which is included in the content of our Bulgarian starter cultures for the production of original Bulgarian yogurt, a traditional dairy product, as well as in our specialized healthy probiotic product line, called Proway.
In recent years, our collection of lactic acid bacteria has been enriched not only from isolated bacteria from real nature and traditional dairy products, but also from human isolates. Thanks to the great efforts of our experts, every year we have found and characterized different types of strains, such as Lactobacillus helveticus, Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus lactis, Bifidobacterium, etc. In addition to conducting technology stability and shelf-life testing, our colleagues are conducting studies to analyze the probiotic benefits of the new strains using various in vivo and in vitro methods. A portion of the new strains have the demonstrated ability to persist in the human gut, they also have strong adhesion ability and good immunostimulatory functions, as well as appropriate inhibitory ability for blood pressure, holesterol, etc. Using a phenotype microarray system, we obtain the most suitable conditions for the manifestation of the sought probiotic property.
The laboratory studies the effect of consumption of products prepared with selected strains and starter cultures for Bulgarian yogurt on the fecal microflora and metabolites of volunteers by conducting clinical trials in collaboration with various hospitals.
The Laboratory specializes in the making of molecular biological analyses in order to characterize the bacterial cultures used in dairy starter cultures. This allows for adding to the quality control of our company products monitoring of the type and strain of the microorganism cultures used. And since the technological and health qualities are most often individual for each starter culture, the production characteristics of the starter cultures and the functionality of the products are guaranteed in this way.
The methods used allow evaluating the great variety of lactic acid bacteria isolated from the territory of Bulgaria and stored in our collection of microorganisms.
The Laboratory has as its priority also to work on the early detection and fight against bacteriophage infections which threaten the production process of dairy products with the possibility to provide support to dairy processors in Bulgaria.
This Laboratory is focused mainly on starter cultures because we know that you get a good product only of you use a good starter culture. The Starter Cultures Laboratory carries out all activities possible related to the development of starter cultures for dairy products, creation of new combinations of starter cultures, research of all conditions for cultivation, freezing and lyophilisation of lactic acid and probiotic bacterial cultures, whether individual or in starter cultures, and laboratory production of inoculate. But the Laboratory does not only do that. When creating a combination of starter cultures for traditional dairy products a multi-stage process is applied which includes the isolation, selection and combination of strains of various taste, technological, and health properties which provides a diversity of starter cultures. The goal is to obtain products adapted to consumers’ taste and manufacturers’ requirements and be in compliance with the restored Bulgarian national standards for the production of Bulgarian yoghurt, cheese, and yellow cheese.
The development of formulae for functional milk-based food products is also a priority. A special selection of strains of Lactobacillus bulgaricus, Lactobacillus helveticus, Streptococcus thermophilus, Lactobacillus gasseri, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus plantarum is used for quick recovery of the gastrointestinal ecosystem upon antibiotic treatment and in acute infectious enterocolitis. Moreover, these probiotic cultures have a proven immunostimulant effect and facilitate the regenerative processes in the body.
If you are wondering where you can find gathered in one place: a high-class mass spectrometry system, a triple quadrupole gas chromatograph mass spectrometer, high performance liquid chromatography equipment, a gas chromatograph, 2D-electrophoresis, isoelectric focusing, and protein electrophoresis, the answer is in LB Bulgaricum’s Molecular Biology Laboratory.
This Laboratory makes analyses of the characteristics of dairy products and the properties of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) on a molecular level with the help of all this modern equipment.
