Bacteria belonging to genus Bifidobacterium are known to have probiotic properties and are incorporated in a variety of probiotic products. There are continuous efforts being made to obtain new probiotic bifid strains. For this, isolation of bifidobacteria is being attempted from various sources and several media are being used for this purpose, which are discussed in this book. To be used as probiotics, bacteria should be well characterized from the safety point of view. Various classical and molecular techniques available for characterization and identification of bifidobacteria...