A sporulation-negative mutant Bacillus strain selected from the group consisting of a Bacillus subtilis subsp. natto strain and a Bacillus coagulans strain, wherein the mutant strain is a sporulation-negative mutant of a sporulation-positive mother strain, wherein a sporulation-negative strain is a strain which forms no spores when assessed by (i) growing the strain overnight in Veal Infusion Broth (VIB) at 37° C., 180 rpm to obtain a culture of the strain, (ii) inoculating 1% of the culture into 50 ml of a standard sporulation inducing medium contained in a 500 ml baffled shake flask to obtain an inoculated medium, (iii) allowing the inoculated medium to grow overnight at 37° C. under shaking at 200 rpm, and (iv) testing for spores the next day.