Three novel dehydrated wheat/rice cereal functional products with an addition of well documented probiotic Bifidobacterium animalis ssp. lactis BB-12® (BB-12®) were developed in Podravka factory for the infants older than 4 months: instant rice cereal, instant rice cereal with fruits and instant wheat cereal with vanilla. Notably, the number of viable BB-12® cells in each of the novel products was higher than the required minimal number of probiotic cells per gram of product (106 CFU/g) during the storage period of 106 weeks. Therefore, BB-12® strain recovery and genome stability were evaluated by strain-specific polimerase chain reaction and amplified fragment length polymorphism fingerprinting analysis. Further aim was to evaluate the influence of these three different cereal food matrices on specific probiotic properties of BB-12® strain in vitro. Applied food matrices positively influenced the survival in the simulated conditions of the gastrointestinal tract and antagonistic activity against undesirable microorganisms, while no influence on auto- and coaggregation ability of B. animalis ssp. lactis BB-12® was observed. Adhesion to extracellular matrix proteins and intestinal epithelial Caco-2 cells together with antibacterial activity emphasized competitive pathogen exclusion from Caco-2 cells by probiotic strain BB-12®.; U pogonu tvrtke „Podravka“ razvijena su tri nova funkcionalna proizvoda na bazi dehidriranih pahuljica od pšenice i riže, uz dodatak jednog od najbolje okarakteriziranih probiotičkih sojeva Bifidobacterium animalis ssp. lactis BB-12® (BB-12®), namijenjena dojenčadi starijoj od 4 mjeseca: instant pahuljice od riže, instant pahuljice od riže s voćem i instant pahuljice od pšenice s vanilijom. Pritom je broj živih probiotičkih stanica BB-12® u pojedinom funkcionalnom proizvodu bio veći od minimalnog preporučenog broja probiotičkih stanica po gramu proizvoda (106 CFU/g) tijekom 106 tjedana skladištenja. Nadalje, ispitan je utjecaj prehrambenih matriksa triju novih proizvoda na specifična probiotička svojstva BB-12® in vitro. Preživljavanje i genetička stabilnost soja BB-12® ispitani su lančanom reakcijom polimeraze umnažanjem specifičnih početnica za soj, te AFLP (engl. amplified fragment length polymorphism) analizom. Primjenjeni prehrambeni matriksi pozitivno su utjecali na preživljavanje probiotičkog soja u simuliranim uvjetima gastrointestinalnog trakta i na njegovo antagonističko djelovanje prema nepoželjnim mikroorganizmima, ali nisu imali učinak na svojstva auto- i koagregacije. Adhezija probiotičkog soja BB-12® na proteine ekstracelularnog matriksa i intestinalne epitelne Caco-2 stanice te njegova antibakterijska aktivnost upućuju na mogućnost kompetitivne ekskluzije patogena.