Abstract
Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) play an important role in the food industry and is also a potential candidate for the production of probiotic products in aquaculture. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the factors influencing the growth rate of lactic acid bacteria strains, NC3 and NC7, isolated from fermented pork “nem chua”. The effects of pH (6.0, 7.5, and 8.5), salinity (10‰, 20‰, and 30‰), and temperature (28°C, 33°C, and 38°C) on the growth of LAB strains were investigated. The results showed that both NC3 and NC7 exhibited good growth under the experimental conditions, with maximal growth observed at pH= 6.0, salinity of 10‰, and a temperature of 38°C, with an initial inoculum concentration of 2x106 CFU/mL. Both bacterial strains NC3 and NC7 were identified as Lactobacillus fermentum by MALDI-TOF MS.