*2.4. Analysis of Survival Rates Following Desiccation Treatment*

The co-culture samples generated as described above were grown for 8 h aerobically at 37 ◦C and 50 rpm. The LAB cells grown as a mono-culture were used as a control. One milliliter of each sample was harvested by centrifugation at 4000× *g* for 10 min, washed once with DW, and 50 μL of the sample was placed into wells of a 96-well polystyrene plate (Greiner Bio-One, Monroe, North Carolina, USA). The plate was left open in a dry cabinet (MRC, Holon, Israel), at 40% relative humidity and 25 ◦C for 20 to 40 h. The MRS agar plates were used to determine the cell counts before drying. For analysis of the viable cell counts following desiccation, 100 μL of DW was added to each well, and the plates were incubated for 5 min at room temperature, before resuspension of the samples by pipetting. Bacterial

suspensions were serially diluted and underwent CFU counting on MRS agar plates. The CFU counts were recorded following incubation for 48 h at 37 ◦C.
