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Abstract

The invention relates to a method of propagating a mixture of two or more different micro-organism phenotypes, said method comprising the steps of: a) inoculating an aqueous culture medium with an inoculum comprising at least two different micro-organism phenotypes; b) mixing the inoculated aqueous medium with fat to produce a water-in-oil emulsion; c) incubating the emulsion at an incubation temperature in the range of 20-60° C. for at least 2 hours; d) heating the incubated emulsion to a temperature that is at least 5° C. above the incubation temperature to cause phase separation of the emulsion; e) repeating the cycle of steps a) to d) at a larger scale using viable cells contained in the aqueous phase of the phase separated emulsion as the inoculum; and f) collecting the propagated mixture of the two or more different micro-organism phenotypes wherein the fat has a solid fat content at the incubation temperature (N_Tc) of at least 5 wt. %. The method according to the invention enables industrial scale production of mixed microbial cultures starting from an inoculum containing a mixture of micro-organisms with no, or only minor population variation during propagation, even if the inoculum contains both fast and slow growing micro-organisms.

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First Claim