Efforts to increase the diversity of artisanal yoghurt starters are not only
important to bring new strains with novel and desirable characteristics, but also for the preservation of
natural diversity which diminishes with the overuse and spread of industrial starters to natural resources.
In the present study, 14 artisanal yoghurt samples were processed for the isolation of promising
strains for yoghurt starter culture production and 66 strains were subsequently characterized.