Figure 2.

Evaluation of the effect of simulated gastrointestinal digestion on the viability of Lac. lactis E32 (A), Lev. brevis G31 (B), Lpb. plantarum G12 (C), and P. pentosaceus L51 (D). N₀ is the initial bacterial density in CFU per milliliter, and N is bacterial density at a particular phase of gastrointestinal digestion (GP, gastric phase; IP, intestinal phase). Values represent the mean of three independent experiments and the error bars represent standard deviations of the mean values. Different lowercase letters indicate statistical significance (p < 0.05) (Greek and Latin lowercase letters refer to differences between logarithmic reductions at the predefined time points, within the same bacterial population and between the four different bacterial populations, respectively).