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What is PREMIUM about?

Microorganisms offer a large variety of functionalities that remains under-exploited due to the current inability to perform long term preservation at an industrial scale.

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB), are a family of micro-organisms widely used for producing a wide diversity of fermented foods. The market of concentrated cultures (starters) is continuously growing due to the development of health benefits products, the use of plant origin proteins as fermentation substrate (instead of milk proteins) and also to LAB’s ability to convert by-products of green chemistry.  The manufacturing of starters requires the application of successive operations that generate stresses, potential cellular damage and loss of functionalities, in particular following the stabilisation processes: freezing, freeze-drying, spray drying. The process of LAB preservation needs thus to be completely revisited integrating all the steps and the three dimensions involved : product quality, process efficiency and environmental impact, in order to propose original and innovative alternatives to companies and society.