In recent years, an increasing number of people resign from consuming cow's milk and other animal products. In order to provide consumers with equally wholesome substitutes, beverages made of soybeans, rice, oats, almonds and even hemp are appearing on the market¹. Both milk and plant beverages must have an appropriate number of live bacterial cells and a pH value. Beverages must have a minimum number of starter microorganism cells throughout the shelf-life of 7.0 log cfu / cm3. The growing popularity of plant products is an impulse to develop new technologies and products to replace traditional dairy products, including fermented ones².

In this study, the applicability of Vitessence Pulse preparations for the production of fermented milk and plant beverages was examined. It were used five Vitessence Pulse preparations: 1550 (pea protein), 2550 (edible lentil protein), 3600 (broad bean protein concentrate), CT 3602 (broad bean protein concentrate), CT 1552 (pea protein concentrate). The milk and the soybean beverages with the addition of preparations were fermented by adding the YC X16 starter culture containing Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus. pH level was checked during fermentation, and after fermentation process, the number of bacterial cells, water-holding capacity, hardness and adhesiveness were determined.

The results showed that the use of Vitessence Pulse preparations did not affect the fermentation of milk and soy beverages, but it significantly influenced the final acidity of soy beverages. Moreover, the use of the preparations reduced the number of Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus in both types of beverages. The number of Streptococcus thermophilus cells in the obtained fermented beverages did not change. The addition of Vitessence Pulse preparations did not affect the hardness and adhesiveness of fermented beverages. It was observed that the water holding capacity of fermented beverages depended on the type of Vitessence Pulse preparation.