**5. Conclusions**

Different vegetable juices are suitable and alternative food matrices for the production of functional foods with *Lactobacillus acidophilus* LA-5, a probiotic strain which is not present in the epiphytic microbiota. Although some differences between the growths trends were determined, all the analyzed vegetables could be considered proper in order to obtain lactic acid fermented juices with a higher self-life. Application of Principal Component Analysis selected the most important parameters from analytical point of view: pH, lactic acid, biomass and viable cells, while the Cluster Analysis divided the experimental variables into three groups.
