Deproteinated cheese whey medium for biomass production of probiotic Lactobacillus helveticus MTCC 5463

Deproteinated cheese whey was used for biomass production of probiotic strain Lactobacillus helveticus MTCC 5463 in a biofermenter. Optimization of growth parameters such as temperature, pH and time of incubation as well as nutrient supplementation of cheese whey was carried out using response surface methodology (RSM). Cheese whey supplemented with 0.95% yeast extract and 0.95% proteose peptone, inoculated with 6% (v/v) active culture of L. helveticus MTCC 5463 and fermented for 24 h at optimized temperature of 40ºC and pH 6.25 yielded 3.25 g/L dry cell biomass and 14.82 log cfu/g total viable count. The optimization of growth parameters and nutrient supplementation resulted in an increase of biomass yield from 1.997 to 3.25 g DCW/L, an enhancement 62.74 %.