ABSTRACT
Starter cultures are used in the manufacturing of dierent types of fermented milk and dairy products including yogurt, dahi, cultured buttermilk, sour cream, quarg, ker, koumiss, and cheese. e use of these cultures for the preparation of products has been practiced since time immemorial. Traditionally, the common method was to use the previous-day’s product (i.e., milk, dahi, whey, buttermilk, etc.) as an inoculum to produce the fresh batches of fermented product. Such methods were not reliable and often resulted in o- avor, inconsistent products, and product failure due to undesirable fermentation. ese drawbacks were mainly due to the lack of scientic knowledge of starter culture technology. e ideal of pure culture for making good-quality fermented milk became more visible in the mid-nineteenth century, where starters were widely studied and their metabolisms were well established. is leads to manufacturers handling large volumes of milk started selection of appropriate starters to obtain uniform quality product. is made the selection of appropriate starters even for manufacturers handling large volumes of milk to obtain uniform quality of product. ereafter, companies started producing pure cultures for commercial application.
