I wasn’t sure it was possible but I believe I have made yogurt from an E. coli culture. Before you jump to conclusions realize that not all E. coli is bad. In fact there is a rather potent E. coli species that is used to fight many harmful gut bacteria. They’re very expensive (e.g. Mutaflor) so I decided to see what would happen if I tried to make yogurt with the suspension form. It took several hours longer than typical yogurt but after about 18hrs I had, what appears to be, yogurt. Now my question for you yogurt making experts…
What the heck have I actually made?
Unlike the typical lactobac. species which convert sugar to lactic acid E. coli (according to wikipedia) can live on a wide variety of substrates and uses mixed-acid fermentation in anaerobic conditions, producing lactate, succinate, ethanol, acetate, and carbon dioxide.
Hello Grant,
Thank you for your input.
The full name of the strain is ‘‘E. coli strain Nissle 1917’’ and it is not a pathogen.
However what you have made is not a yogurt either as it does not contain Lactobacteria, but gelatin and other thickening substances which can change the structure of the milk.
Please always use the medication as ‘‘Mutaflor’’ or whatever else as per instructions and intended use.
Any medication needs to pass trials, and they are tested strictly.
If you are not sure what you have made, please dispose the product and use the medication as per the instructions.
Please check the Mutaflor leaflet here: Mutaflor Package Insert
Best wishes
Yes, I realize Nissle is not a pathogen. I thought that would have been clear from my post… and the fact that I was trying to make yogurt from it.
Okay, so to be considered a yogurt one must use a species from the Lactobacillus genus? Are there not yogurts made with Bifidobacterium?
Could it be that the specific bacteria just needs to produce lactic acid? If that is the case E. coli certainly has the potential to produce lactic acid and given the environment (milk) that might be the only metabolite it could produce. It’s not clear to me how gelatin or other thickening substances come into play here. If the end product was gelatin would it have a pH similar to that of yogurt?
I’m also well aware of the fact that medicines are tested with clinical trials and that Mutaflor has instructions. I appreciate your concern for my wellbeing but I wasn’t really looking for medical advice. I was hoping there may be someone who has a little more knowledge than I do about bacterial metabolites and how they relate to what we call yogurt.
For anyone who may stumble across this post. The following is a little bit more concerning the initial response:
Because of the starter cultures impact on creating specific products, only fermentation by the two species Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus produce yogurt [5]. Fermentation of milk by any other cultures results in a different dairy product such as butter or cheese [6]. These two species are lactic acid producing bacteria (LAB) and are gram-positive rods and cocci respectively [5]. They do not form spores and are catalase negative, obligatory fermentative, microaerophilic and non-motile [5].
(5.) Hui, Y. H., and FOODnetBASE. 2004. Handbook of food and beverage fermentation technology. Marcel Dekker, New York. (6.) Leroy, F., and L. De Vuyst. 2004. Lactic acid bacteria as functional starter cultures for the food fermentation industry. Trends Food Sci. Technol. 15:67-78. doi: 10.1016/j.tifs.2003.09.004.
Hello Grant,
Thank you that you directed our attention to this.
The product you have mentioned is a medication and need to be used as medication following the leaflet strictly(or your doctor prescription and advice).
During the inoculation, the bacteria will grow in numbers(billions), and you might overdose it.
The medication probably is not tested for such a use and might deliver side effects. Please consult with your doctor before consumption.
As you know very well, yogurt is made by milk fermentation triggered by Lactobacteria( ‘‘milk loving bacteria’’ from Latin).
For the full definitions, please visit and scroll down to Good bacteria Those official definitions support fully the article which you shared with us.
The best advice any specialist in the field can give you is posted here and in the previous post.
Best wishes
Mutaflor is a medical product. E. coli Nissle is bacteria which happens to be healthy. There is no reason to limit what we can do with Nissle just because Mutaflor itself has restrictions. Furthermore, while my source is Mutaflor there are other means of acquiring E coli Nissle.
I understand that the policies of your website may make the discussion of something that departs from the well trodden path a little uncomfortable. I’m sorry to have brought the discussion up here as clearly you are reluctant to say much other than “read the Mutaflor package”. I’ll leave you with something close to the answer I was originally seeking. For anyone interested the following article discusses how E. coli behaves in milk. It discusses the “diary product” that results. Although the approach is rather to protect individuals from milk that has been infected with pathogenic E. coli. But there is no reason this can’t be applied to the nonpathogenic healthier variants.
Hello Grant,
Surely you understand that we cannot give any advice related to the product which is sold as a ‘‘medical.’’
Thank you for the article shared. We are well informed for this particular strain and some others, but we cannot discuss or/and encourage people to experiment with medical products.
However, we will keep the article above as it comes from a reputable source