A lactic starter culture has been used to produce diacetyl and acetoin from a substrate of whey permeate. When the substrate was supplemented with yeast extract at 5 g/l, diacetyl and acetoin concentrations of 26 mg/l and 440 mg/l, respectively, were achieved. Additional supplementation with Fe2+ or CU2+ failed to significantly increase these concentrations, but the addition of citrate at 5 g/l increased the acetoin concentration to 560 mg/l.