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Synbiotics are defined as a composition of probiotics and prebiotics with synergistic reinforcing effects. In practice, only growth stimulation is often took into account when justifying the effectiveness of a synbiotic composition. However, the effect of prebiotics to the interaction of probiotic and pathogenic bacteria during co-culture fermentation was examined in a range of researches. The influence of commercial prebiotics on the ability of probiotics (bifidobacteria and lactobacilli) to suppress the growth of pathogens and microbial food contaminants has been assessed at present study. The comparison was based on the quantitative criterion obtained earlier from a model that described their interaction in mixed culture fermentation. The ability of probiotics to produce the growth inhibitors, as well as the effect of these inhibitors on opportunistic bacteria (expressed through microbial growth inhibition constants) were considered. The proposed criterion shows how many times the specific growth rate of opportunistic bacteria will decrease. The inhibition constants of the test strains of Bacillus cereus and Staphylococcus aureus were determined for this aim. The mixed culture fermentations of one of the mentioned test strains with one of the strains of Bifidobacterium bifidum, Bifidobaterium adolescentis or Lactobacillus plantarum in presence of commercial prebiotics (fructo-oligosaccharides, inulin, raffinose, isomaltulose, lactulose) or non prebiotic substrate (glucose) were carried out whereat. The criteria calculated from the data obtained during fermentation allowed to substantiate the optimal combination for each pair of probiotics and prebiotics, as well as to compare the efficiency of these compositions against the selected opportunistic bacteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]