Isolation and Characterization of Lactic Acid Bacteria in Philippine Fermented Milkfish Chanos chanos-Rice Mixture (Burong Bangus)

Isolation and characterization of bacteria in food products are important to determine and distinguish the beneficial or harmful effects of microbiota in certain samples. Lactic acid bacteria in food products had long been associated to good factors as food preservatives and with added fermentation metabolites. This study isolated and characterized lactic acid bacteria from burong bangus. The culture and purification process of bacteria isolation resulted to 4 strains of lactic acid bacteria namely Enterococcus faecalis, Tetragenococcus muriaticus, Lactobacillus delbrueckii subp. delbrueckii and Carnobacterium divergens. High enzymatic activity were observed with E. faecalis particularly on lipase and protease assay. While C. divergens have no enzymatic activity against lipase, protease, amylase and cellulase. The antimicrobial property of L. delbrueckii is only susceptible to amoxicillin unlike the other three bacteria isolates. No antagonistic activity were observed with the four bacterial strains against Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. The result of this study showed promising benefits to the industry especially in developing countries like the Philippines because population are not yet so aware of this organisms and the benefits that can be derived through their consumption.