PROCESS FOR PRODUCING AN IMPROVED FERMENTED MILK PRODUCT USING A SPORULATION NEGATIVE BACILLUS STRAIN

The invention relates to a method for producing a fermented dairy product, comprising: (a) providing a milk substrate, (b) fermenting said milk substrate with a lactic acid bacterium starter culture, wherein step (b) is conducted in the presence of at least one Bacillus strain selected from the group consisting of a sporulation-negative Bacillus subtilis subsp. natto strain, a sporulation-negative Bacillus coagulans strain, wherein a sporulation-negative strain is a strain, which forms no spores when subjected to the following method: i) inoculating 1% of a culture of the strain to be tested, grown over night in Veal Infusion Broth (VIB) at 37° C., 180 rpm, into 50 ml of a standard sporulation inducing medium contained in a 500 ml baffled shake flask, ii) allowing the inoculated medium to grow overnight at 37° C. while subjecting it to shaking at 0rpm, and iii) testing for spores the next day.