THT, the science of lactic ferments

THT's know-how is rooted in its rare and perfect mastery of bacterial strain selection and production processes. This production process constitutes THT's core business.

We invite you to have a closer look at the different stages :

1) Conservation of the strains After being isolated, studied, and selected, the bacterial strain (for example, Lactobacillus rhamnosus THT 030901) is stored at -80°C. When a new production run starts up, the strain is then seeded in Petri dishes.
2) Precultures A first, then second, preculture is done by inoculating a series of progressively larger flasks containing a culture medium that has been specially studied to grow the required strain.
3) Cultures The fermenter vessel - a bioreactor that can contain up to 2,000 liters of culture medium - is then inoculated with the precultures. As a rule, the culturing takes less than 24 hours, during which it is important to regulate very precisely the temperature, acidity, aeration, and stirring conditions so as to produce the optimal bacterial concentration inside the reactor.
4) Harvesting At the end of the fermentation step, the biomass is recovered by centrifugation. At this point it is a highly concentrated "bacterial paste" that must be dried very carefully in order to keep the bacteria alive!
5) Drying In most cases, the paste is dried by lyophilization (freeze-drying). This involves dehydrating the product by evaporating off the water that it contains. This phase can take from one to three days and produces a dry cake.
6) Pure cultures After a last physical treatment we have a bacterial powder. This is known as the "pure culture." In most cases, the highly concentrated pure culture will then be diluted to yield the desired concentration in the final product.
7) Formulation Our engineers can develop a more complex formulation to meet special needs. In such cases, the pure culture will be mixed with other active ingredients, such as other pure bacterial cultures, prebiotic fibers, digestive enzymes, etc.
8) Packaging Finally, to meet its clients' needs, THT can make the product available in the form of capsules, tablets, or packets. The capsules, tablets, and packets can then be put in blister packs, jars, boxes, etc., for delivery in packaging that is ready for distribution!