Patent ID: 8486468

Claim:
A method of increasing the shelf life and/or the quality of an edible product comprising adding to the product an effective amount of a starter culture composition which is a starter culture comprising a culturally modified lactic acid bacterial cell that has, relative to the cell from which it is derived, an increased content of a porphyrin compound which includes iron, wherein said porphyrin compound is haemin, heme or cytochrome d, wherein the composition is in the form of a frozen, or freeze dried composition, wherein the composition contains an amount of viable culturally modified lactic acid bacterial cells which are in the range of 10 10 to 10 12 CFU per g, and wherein the bacterial cell is of a bacterial species selected from the group consisting of Lactococcus spp., and Leuconostoc spp., wherein shelf life is the period of time in which the edible product is acceptable for consumption.