These 17 fermentations in 2 L fermenters were stopped once the
glucose was depleted as determined by glucose analysis. The majority
of the fermentations were terminated after 10e14 h (Table 3), the
exceptions were L. fermentum BFE 6625, L. pentosus BFE 7596 and
L. plantarum BFE 7688, which took 18, 25 and 25 h, respectively, before
glucose depletion. L. mesenteroides ssp. mesenteroides strain BFE 7668
and W. paramesenteroides strain BFE 7608 completed the fermentation
in only 8 and 9.5 h, respectively. A summary of the cell concentrations,
the fermentation times, the biomass produced and the cell
biomass yield after freeze drying are shown in Table 3. Variations
were evident in terms of cell concentration after fermentation and
after freeze drying for all strains. L. fermentum strain BFE 6620
produced 2.8 g/L biomass compared to 6.7 g/L produced by L. fermentum
strain BFE 6625. Strain BFE 6625 also grew to ca. 2 log CFU/ml
higher in the fermentation, and it resulted in a 1 log CFU/g higher cell
number in the freeze-dried powder, compared to strain BFE 6620.
However, L. fermentum BFE 6620 had a yield of 43% after freeze drying
compared to only 14% for strain BFE 6625. The biomass produced by
the L. pentosus strains BFE 6748, BFE 7589 and BFE 7596 (Table 3)
ranged from 6.1 g/L to 11.2 g/L. Their cell counts in freeze-dried
powder ranged from 11.7 to 12.5 log CFU/g, and the yields after freeze
drying ranged from 20 to 27%. The majority of strains studied were
L. plantarum. The biomass produced by the L. plantarum strains ranged
from 5.1 to 18.2 g/L. Cell counts in freeze-dried powder for these
strains ranged from 11.1 to 13.0 log CFU/g. The yields after freeze
drying ranged from 18 to 51%. Biomass produced by W. paramesenteroides
strains BFE 7601 and BFE 7608 were only 1.4 and 3.7 g/L,
respectively, and the counts in freeze-dried powder were between
11.3 and 12.2 log CFU/g, with yields after freeze drying between 20
and 34%. L.mesenteroides ssp.mesenteroides strain BFE 7668 produced
a low amount of biomass (2.6 g/L), with a cell count of 11.2log CFU/g in
the freeze-dried form, and a yield of 24% after freeze drying.