The present invention provides novel Lactococcus lactis lactic acid bacterium strains having improved texturing properties and methods of using the strains for producing food products.

The present invention relates to a method for obtaining a bacteriophage insensitive mutant of a lactic acid bacterium parent strain suitable for food and feed fermentation. Further, the present invention relates to a method for the construction of a bacteriophage insensitive lactic acid bacterium whereby the phage resistance is conferred by a mechanism other than CRISPR. A preferred lactic acid bacterium is Streptococcus thermophilus.

The present invention provides at least one protein selected from the group consisting of the following proteins (a) to (d): (a) a protein which is composed of an amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO: 1; (b) a protein which is, in the amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO: 1, composed of an amino acid sequence in which one or more amino acids other than tyrosine at position 40 are substituted, deleted, inserted, and/or added and has a fermented milk viscosity improving effect; (c) a protein which is composed of an amino acid sequence having 80% or more identity with the amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO: 1, has tyrosine as an amino acid corresponding to position 40 of the amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO: 1, and has a fermented milk viscosity improving effect; and (d) a protein which is composed of an amino acid sequence encoded by a DNA that hybridizes under stringent conditions with a complementary strand of a DNA composed of the nucleotide sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO: 2, has tyrosine as an amino acid corresponding to position 40 of the amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO: 1, and has a fermented milk viscosity improving effect.

Provided herein are dairy-like compositions and the methods of making the same using one or more recombinant proteins.

A host cell capable of expressing a polypeptide having -galactosidase and/or transgalactosylating activity and which host cell is modified to be cellulase, mannanase and pectinase deficient.

The present invention relates to mutants of lactic acid bacteria which are resistant to the antibiotic ampicillin and which were found to give an increased texture when grown in milk while maintaining the other growth properties of the parent strain. The present invention, furthermore, relates to compositions comprising such mutants, and to dairy products fermented with the lactic acid bacteria resistant to ampicillin.

The present invention describes a process for in situ generation of stable GOS in different dairy products by the use of a transgalactosylating -galactosidase.

The present invention is directed to a method of producing a Streptococcus thermophilus strain comprising the steps of a) Providing a mother strain in the form of Streptococcus thermophilus DSM32502, b) Growing a culture of the mother strain in the presence of a bacteriophage, to which the mother strain is not resistant, to obtain a number of mutant strains, which are resistant to the said bacteriophage, c) Measuring the acidification time of the bacteriophage-resistant mutant strains and the mother strain in a milk base and selecting at least one mutant strain with a reduced acidification time as compared to the mother strain to obtain a fast-acidifying mutant strain.

The present invention relates to the field of prevention and/or treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases such as Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis.

The invention relates to the field of dairy technology. The invention specifically relates to a Streptococcus thermophilus starter strain and composition comprising such strain, to methods to produce a fermented milk product using such strain or composition and to dairy products produced using such strain or composition.