*2.4. Microbiological Analysis*

Ten grams of yoghurt was transferred into a sterile stomacher bag with 90 g sterilized Ringer solution (1.15525, Merck, Darmstadt, Germany) and was homogenized for 60 s with a stomacher (BagMixer ® Interscience, Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche, France). The enumeration of remaining viable cells of 10-fold serial dilutions of yoghurt homogenates was conducted using the appropriate plate methodology.

For enumerating the probiotic bacteria, MRS agar (Merck, 1.10660, Darmstadt, Germany) was modified as follows; (a) addition of 5% *v*/*v* filter-sterilized NNLP (NNLP sol. comprises 100 mg Neomycin sulfate, 15 mg Nalidixic acid, 3 g Lithium chloride and 200 mg Paromomycin sulfate per 1 L (Tharmaraj & Shah, 2004)) sol. and 3% *v*/*v* filter-sterilized L-cysteine HCl sol. for Bifidobacteria spp., and (b) addition of 0.2% *v*/*v* filter-sterilized vancomycin hydrochloride sol. (Calbiochem, 627850, Darmstadt, Germany) for *Lactobacillus casei* enumeration [17]. Incubation of petri dishes was carried

out in anaerobic jars (Merck, 1.16387, Darmstadt, Germany) at 37 ◦C for 72 h, using Anaerocult A (Merck, 1.13829, Darmstadt, Germany) as a catalyst. *Streptococcus thermophilus* was enumerated on M17 Agar (1.15108, Merck, Darmstadt, Germany) after incubation at 37 ◦C for 24 h under aerobic conditions. For *Lactobacillus bulgaricus* enumeration, the pour plate methodology on MRS agar with modified pH value at 4.58 was used, followed by incubation at 45 ◦C for 72 h in anaerobic jars as previously described. Two replicates of at least three appropriate dilutions were enumerated.
