Lactic Acid Bacteria. Biodiversity and Taxonomy

The lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are a group of related micro-organisms that are enormously important in the food and beverage industries. Generally regarded as safe for human consumption (and, in the case of probiotics, positively beneficial to human health), the LAB have been used for centuries, and continue to be used worldwide on an industrial scale, in food fermentation processes, including yoghurt, cheeses, fermented meats and vegetables, where they ferment carbohydrates in the foods, producing lactic acid and creating an environment unsuitable for food spoilage organisms and pathogens to survive. The shelf life of the product is thereby extended, but of course these …