Isolation and Characterization of Lactic Acid Bacteria from Indonesia Soybean Tempe

Abstract

Tempe is a widely consumed Indonesian traditional food which is made from soybean through a fermentation process, mainly by Rhizopus oligosporus. Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) also involves in the process specifically in the soaking and fermentation steps. Isolation of the LAB from tempe was done at different stages of the tempe's production to examine for the occurrence of LAB. Morphological, physiological and biochemical characteristics were employed to identify LAB. 16 LAB were obtained and 13 LAB isolates were identified as Lactobacillus heterofermentative, one isolate, (S4 I) as Streptococcus non enterococci while the other 2 LAB isolates, (S4 A and S4 J) could not be identified. Hence this study showed that Lactobacillus heterofermentative bacteria is dominant in every stage of tempe's production