Patent ID: 7892583

Claim:
A method of producing a microbial organism capable of fermenting malic acid to lactic acid, wherein said method comprises the steps of i) Providing a microbial organism resistant to a pH below 5 and an ethanol concentration of at least 8%, ii) Subjecting said microbial organism to mutagenesis, thereby obtaining more than one different mutated microbial organism iii) Selecting a mutated microbial organisms capable of fermenting malic acid to lactic acid, wherein said selected mutated microbial organism when placed in a medium at an initial concentration in the range of 1×10 6 to 5×10 7 colony forming units per ml medium, said medium initially containing a predetermined amount of citric acid in the range of 100 to 1,000 mg/L, and a predetermined amount of malic acid in the range of 1,000 to 10,000 mg/L, is only capable of degrading at the most 50% of said citric acid within the period required for degradation of the malic acid within the medium to an amount not exceeding 30 mg/L, and wherein the selected mutated microbial organism is capable, under suitable growth conditions, of adaptation to, when said microbial organism in a frozen or freeze dried state is added directly into a fermented fruit juice: a) a survival rate which is at least 1% after two days at 23° C. in a fermented sterile fruit juice comprising at least 12 vol % ethanol; and/or b) a survival rate which is at least 70% after two days at 17° C. in a fermented sterile fruit juice comprising at least 13.9 vol % ethanol said organism being of a genus selected from the group consisting of Lactobacillus, Pediococcus , and Oenococcus.