The journey that led to the discovery of the strain
of lactic acid bacteria began with one phone call.
In early summer of 1997, a phone call came in at the head office of Meiji (Meiji Dairies at the time), through its switchboard. The caller was a scientist from Tokai University, who wanted to do joint research with Meiji on lactic acid bacteria. The tale of our scientists’ journey that led to the discovery of LG21 lactic acid bacteria suddenly started to unfold with this unexpected call. The message was passed on to Meiji’s laboratory. A few days later, it was arranged for Meiji’s researchers to pay a visit to Tokai University. The Meiji researchers were briefed on the progress made by the university scientists in their research on lactic acid bacteria, and were also enthusiastically approached by them to conduct joint studies, as Meiji’s cooperation was considered crucial. Although Meiji’s researchers intuitively knew that such a project could lead to something big, they alone could not decide what to do, given the magnitude of the plan.
