Abstract

Fermented coco milk drink was manufactured to study an appropriate lactic acid bacteria and water coconut composition as well as to evaluate product stability and lactic acid bacteria (LAB) viability during storage at 5°C. Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus could grow well in all of the coco milk drink prepared from mixture of coconut water and coconut milk combination with the ratio of 3:1, 3:2 and 4:1, respectively. Among the three of lactic acid bacteria, L. acidophilus produced the most acid with titrable acidity of 0.62% after 24 h fermentation and was the most preferable in term of the taste. Coco milk drink fermented by L. acidophilus was noted to have pH value of 3.79, and folic acid content of 5.42 ppm/ml after 24 h fermentation. The growth of L. acidophilus was increase after 4 h fermentation until it reached maximum at 20 h  ranged from log 4.32 to log 9.89 cfu/ml and relatively constant afterwards. Storage of fermented coco milk drink at 5°C for 16 day could stabilize the quality of this drink with viability of L. acidophilus was log 10.201(log cfu/ml) and the pH values was 3.58.

Key words: Fermented coco milk drink, viability, lactic acid bacteria.