The aim of this study was to prepare alginate-immobilized freeze-dried cultures of Streptococcus thermophilus and to compare the acidifying activities of these rehydrated cultures with classical free cell liquid inoculants. Streptococcus thermophilus BT1 grew in alginate beads and the population reached 10(10) cfu g(-1) after 6 h incubation. Re-inoculation of the beads in fresh medium with a further 6 h incubation did not improve the biomass level, but extending the incubation at 42 degrees C to 24 h caused significant death. The rehydrated immobilized cell technology (ICT) starter contained 13% free cells. In acidifying activity tests, the ICT culture had a similar acidification curve to that of a classical milk-grown free cell culture, except that it reached lower final pH values. Although the differences between the ICT and liquid cultures were not important, there were significant effects of inoculation level on lag time, maximum acidification rate and on the pH and time at which the acidification rate was at its highest.