Food products stable at ambient temperature

A process for manufacturing a food product stable at an ambient temperature of 25° C., said process comprising screening for and identifying strains capable of generating a food product stable at an ambient temperature of 25° C., wherein the process comprises adding to an initial food product with a pH of between 3.4 and 4.6, and containing a level of bacteria which is no more than 1×102 CFU per g, one or more stable lactic acid bacteria in a total amount of at least 1×105 CFU per g, to obtain a food product stable at an ambient temperature of 25° C., wherein:

• (i) each of said one or more stable lactic acid bacterium is selected from a strain of the species Lactobacillus plantarum;
• and
• (ii) each of said one or more stable lactic acid bacterium, when added in an amount of 1×107 CFU per g to a test yoghurt having a pH of 4.3, previously heat-treated at 75° C. for 25 seconds:
• a) retains viability in an amount of at least 5×103 CFU/g after storing said test yoghurt 30 days at a temperature of 37° C.;
• and
• b) decreases the pH of said test yoghurt by at most 0.6 units after storing said test yoghurt 30 days at a temperature of 37° C.,
• wherein the strain of the species Lactobacillus plantarum is selected from the group consisting of the strain DSM32493 deposited at the DSMZ on Apr. 26, 2017, the strain DSM33120 deposited at the DSMZ on May 22, 2019, the strain DSM33121 deposited at the DSMZ on May 22, 2019, and a variant of the DSM32493 strain into which the ATP synthase alpha subunit gene of the ATP-synthase operon bears the mutation G to A at its position 506;
• and
• wherein the food product is stable at ambient temperature after storing it for 180 days at a temperature of 25° C.