Researches on acid-producing bacteria in Ragi obtained from various regions of Indonesia revealed that older Ragi shows higher viability rate of coccus than younger ones. The result suggested that rod bacteria cannot survive for a long time under dry conditions in Ragi.
One hundred ninety-two strains of acid-producing bacteria were isolated from Ragi.Among them, 174 strains were cocci, all of which were found to be tetrad by microscopic observation. They grew at initial pH value of 5.0 to 8.0 (optimum 7.0) and temperature range of 10°C to 40°C. Their tolerance against sodium chloride in their growth was 6.5%. The cocci were identified to be Pediococcus pen tosaceus from these data.