Fig. 3. Viable counts in skim milk fermented by binary co-cultures of S. thermophilus
with L. bulgaricus (St–Lb), L. acidophilus (St–La), L. rhamnosus (St–Lr) and B.
lactis (St–Bl), after 1 day and 7 days of storage at 4 C. ( ) Milk without inulin; ( )
Milk supplemented with 40 mg of inulin/g. Error bars are standard deviations with
respect to the mean values of triplicate analyses of quadruplicate fermentations.
Different letters mean statistically significant difference among the values, according
to the test of Tukey (p < 0.05).