WHAT ARE MILK KEFIR GRAINS?
Milk kefir grains are a combination of live bacteria and yeasts that exist in a symbiotic matrix on a surface of a complex polysaccharide with a casein core. The make-up of kefir grains can vary depending on the culturing location and culturing conditions.
This means the community of lactic acid bacteria and yeasts can be highly variable in batches of kefir cultured in different places by different people.
The following is a list of bacteria and yeast strains found to comprise kefir grains from different regions through 2 different scientific studies.* The strains listed may include numerous subspecies and variants.
BACTERIA STRAINS COMMON TO MILK KEFIR GRAINS
Lactobacillus acidophilus
Lactobacillus brevis
Lactobacillus casei
Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus
Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. delbrueckii
Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. lactis
Lactobacillus helveticus
Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens subsp. kefiranofaciens
Lactobacillus kefiri
Lactobacillus paracasei subsp. paracasei
Lactobacillus plantarum
Lactobacillus rhamnosus
Lactobacillus sake
Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris
Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis
Lactococcus lactis
Leuconostoc mesenteroides subsp. cremoris
Leuconostoc mesenteroides subsp. dextranicum
Leuconostoc mesenteroides subsp. mesenteroides
Pseudomonas
Pseudomonas fluorescens
Pseudomonas putida
Streptococcus thermophilus
YEAST STRAINS COMMON TO MILK KEFIR GRAINS
Candida humilis
Kazachstania unispora
Kazachstania exigua
Kluyveromyces siamensis
Kluyveromyces lactis
Kluyveromyces marxianus
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Saccharomyces martiniae
Saccharomyces unisporus
Please note that this list is for general informational purposes only. Cultures for Health does not test individual batches of milk kefir grains for yeast and bacteria content; therefore we cannot make any guarantees as to the exact probiotic makeup of our milk kefir grains.
BACTERIA IN POWDERED KEFIR STARTER CULTURES
If you are making kefir using a powdered kefir starter culture, you can find more information on the cultures' composition on the corresponding product pages.
View Product Pages: Cultures for Health Kefir Starter Culture | Body Ecology Kefir Starter Culture
* Sources
- Microbiological study of lactic acid bacteria in kefir grains by culture-dependent and culture-independent methods
- Analysis of the microflora in Tibetan kefir grains using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis
