Critters that live in your Yoghurt

Students taking the Food and Industrial Microbiology unit would find themselves in a mini project involving the identification of microbial species in various types of fermented foods.

I'd like to show some of you out there the three bacteria which we found in today's yoghurt sample generally classified as "Probiotics" as they help boost health :)
"Pro" as in support and for
"Biotics" as in the mechanisms of living creatures

Managed to take photos of them too!



These rod shaped bacteria are called generally called "Bacillus" after their long hot dog like shape. Our lecturer posed the suggestion that it could be of the Lactobacillus Acidophilus strain. The typical bacterium that you hear in advertisements that ends up in your bottle of Vitagen and Yakult.

Lacto- as in lactic acid from milk
Acidophillus- as in acid loving

They're naturally found in the human gut and are known to boost immune systems and some particularly useful to fight vaginal infection if plenty is ingested as part of a daily diet.



Notice the 'Y' or rather 'V' shaped rods in purple? That's most likely to be Bifidobacterium bifidum. Mommys and Daddys who feed their baby some of today's formula enhanced milk..that's what you're feeding your kids if you notice the word "bifidus" as one of it's contents. In fact, Bifidobacterium wasn't introduced in the dairy industry until very recently.

Also found in the gut and great for health the same way lactobacillus is :)



Not too sure if ppl will be able to notice the 'chain' of round-round bacteria. Suggestively this could be streptococcus thermophilus. They make the milk more acidic and then form the breakdown milk to form the gel like material of yoghurt.

The next time i drink yoghurt...i'm gonna think about these and lick my lips to say...

"MMMM....BACTERIA!"