# Quality Assessment of Organic Kefirs Made with Kefir Grains and Freeze-Dried Starter Cultures
## 3 Results and Discussion
### Analysis of Organic Kefirs During Refrigerated Storage
#### 3.3.5 Microbiological Analysis
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Day** & **L12** & **L24** & **G12** & **G24** \\ \hline \hline \multicolumn{5}{c}{Firmness, g} \\
1 & \(28.28\pm 6.25\) & \(35.06\)\({}^{\text{b}}\)\(\pm\) 1.73 & \(32.09\pm 1.56\) & \(27.51\pm 0.79\) \\
7 & \(27.73\)\({}^{\text{A}}\)\(\pm\) 2.58 & \(32.49\)\({}^{\text{a,B}}\)\(\pm\) 0.31 & \(31.94\)\({}^{\text{B}}\)\(\pm\) 0.93 & \(27.66\)\({}^{\text{A}}\)\(\pm\) 0.19 \\
14 & \(29.55\)\({}^{\text{E}}\)\(\pm\) 2.30 & \(31.32\)\({}^{\text{a}}\)\(\pm\) 0.83 & \(29.84\pm 1.86\) & \(27.33\pm 0.11\) \\
21 & \(28.35\)\({}^{\text{A,B}}\)\(\pm\) 0.74 & \(30.16\)\({}^{\text{a,B}}\)\(\pm\) 1.34 & \(32.38\)\({}^{\text{C}}\)\(\pm\) 0.33 & \(28.09\)\({}^{\text{A}}\)\(\pm\) 0.19 \\ \hline \multicolumn{5}{c}{Cohesiveness, g} \\
1 & \(-5.41\)\({}^{\text{A}}\)\(\pm\) 0.71 & \(-20.87\)\({}^{\text{b,C}}\)\(\pm\) 0.72 & \(-6.06\)\({}^{\text{A,B}}\)\(\pm\) 1.13 & \(-8.28\)\({}^{\text{B}}\)\(\pm\) 0.76 \\
7 & \(-4.94\)\({}^{\text{A}}\)\(\pm\) 0.49 & \(-22.18\)\({}^{\text{c,C}}\)\(\pm\) 1.64 & \(-7.62\)\({}^{\text{A,B}}\)\(\pm\) 1.15 & \(-8.75\)\({}^{\text{B}}\)\(\pm\) 0.98 \\
14 & \(-4.83\)\({}^{\text{A}}\)\(\pm\) 0.60 & \(-17.86\)\({}^{\text{a,B}}\)\(\pm\) 1.36 & \(-6.75\)\({}^{\text{A,B}}\)\(\pm\) 0.68 & \(-8.68\)\({}^{\text{B}}\)\(\pm\) 0.89 \\
21 & \(-5.12\)\({}^{\text{A}}\)\(\pm\) 1.43 & \(-16.88\)\({}^{\text{a,B}}\)\(\pm\) 0.82 & \(-6.61\)\({}^{\text{A}}\)\(\pm\) 0.89 & \(-7.55\)\({}^{\text{A}}\)\(\pm\) 0.88 \\ \hline \multicolumn{5}{c}{Consistency, g-s} \\
1 & \(285.62\)\({}^{\text{A}}\)\(\pm\) 15.37 & \(380.89\)\({}^{\text{C}}\)\(\pm\) 18.24 & \(349.61\)\({}^{\text{B,C}}\)\(\pm\) 7.55 & \(323.01\)\({}^{\text{B}}\)\(\pm\) 10.39 \\
7 & \(295.86\)\({}^{\text{A}}\)\(\pm\) 6.60 & \(371.34\)\({}^{\text{B}}\)\(\pm\) 7.40 & \(361.00\)\({}^{\text{B}}\)\(\pm\) 16.21 & \(318.04\)\({}^{\text{A}}\)\(\pm\) 9.37 \\
14 & \(296.35\)\(\pm\) 7.69 & \(334.96\)\(\pm\) 31.73 & \(336.66\)\(\pm\) 5.98 & \(316.66\)\(\pm\) 8.64 \\
21 & \(308.07\)\({}^{\text{A}}\)\(\pm\) 3.40 & \(343.89\)\({}^{\text{C}}\)\(\pm\) 6.46 & \(356.66\)\({}^{\text{C}}\)\(\pm\) 9.06 & \(324.84\)\({}^{\text{B}}\)\(\pm\) 3.83 \\ \hline \multicolumn{5}{c}{Viscosity index, g-s} \\
1 & \(-0.63\)\({}^{\text{A}}\)\(\pm\) 0.44 & \(-25.98\)\({}^{\text{b,B}}\)\(\pm\) 2.41 & \(-1.14\)\({}^{\text{A}}\)\(\pm\) 1.08 & \(-2.76\)\({}^{\text{a,A}}\)\(\pm\) 0.28 \\
7 & \(-0.51\)\({}^{\text{A}}\)\(\pm\) 0.15 & \(-27.67\)\({}^{\text{b,B}}\)\(\pm\) 1.99 & \(-2.62\)\({}^{\text{A}}\)\(\pm\) 0.52 & \(-2.53\)\({}^{\text{a,A}}\)\(\pm\) 0.09 \\
14 & \(-0.70\)\({}^{\text{A}}\)\(\pm\) 0.30 & \(-19.29\)\({}^{\text{a,B}}\)\(\pm\) 1.75 & \(-2.02\)\({}^{\text{B}}\)\(\pm\) 0.71 & \(-3.72\)\({}^{\text{b,B}}\)\(\pm\) 0.16 \\
21 & \(-0.53\)\({}^{\text{A}}\)\(\pm\) 0.19 & \(-17.03\)\({}^{\text{a,B}}\)\(\pm\) 2.80 & \(-1.84\)\({}^{\text{A}}\)\(\pm\) 0.79 & \(-2.80\)\({}^{\text{a,A}}\)\(\pm\) 0.59 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}  
* Explanatory notes: The table presents mean values \(\pm\) standard deviation. 112–kefir fermented with a freeze-dried culture for 12 h; L24—kefir fermented with a freeze-dried culture for 24 h; G12—kefir fermented with kefir grains for 12 h; G24—kefir fermented with kefir grains for 24 h. Different superscript letters (\({}^{\text{a}}\)\({}^{\text{c}}\)) indicate significant differences in the same kefir on different storage days. Superscript capital letters (\({}^{\text{A}}\)\({}^{\text{c}}\)) indicate significant differences between kefirs at the same storage day (\(\varphi\leq 0.05\)).  
\end{table} 
Table 5: Texture parameters of organic kefirs during refrigerated storage. The counts of lactobacilli, lactococci, and yeasts were higher in organic milk inoculated with KGs than in milk inoculated with the freeze-dried culture (Table 6). The counts of the mentioned microorganisms increased throughout the fermentation process in milk with the freeze-dried starter culture, while in milk with KGs, the counts were more stable. The initial counts of lactobacilli, lactococci, and yeasts were distinctly higher in samples inoculated with KGs.