As has been already reported for whey fermentation by free kefir
cells the fermentation time was found about 3-fold higher of
that of synthetic media containing lactose (Golfinopoulos et al.,
2009). The whey contains much more chemical constituents than
the synthetic media – e.g. Ca2+ ions – which adsorbed on cell walls,
prevent the adsorption of lactose and reduce diffusion of lactose
into the cell for the hydrolysis (Akrida-Demertzi and Demertzis,
1988; Akrida-Demertzi et al., 1990). Here is obvious that using biopolymers
the fermentation rate was much higher in the case of
whey as compared with lactose synthetic medium