Pro-biotic ice cream was produced by mixing a standard ice cream mix containing 14% (w/w) cow's milk curd prepared using cultures of Lactobacillus casei and L. acidophilus. The ice cream mix was then chilled in a freezer and hardened at a temperature of -20 °C. The hardened ice cream was stored for 8 weeks at -20 °C and the survival of the pro-biotic strains and their activity for the improvement of the nutritional quality of ice cream were determined at regular intervals during storage. The viable cell counts of L. casei and L. acidophilus, viscosity, nutritional quality and sensory ratings were determined. Initially the pro-biotic bacterial count was 10 8 colony forming units (cfu/g) at the highest over-run and the highest cell counts were observed for L. casei (6.14×10 8 cfu/g). The cell count decreased slowly during storage. In the present study the ice cream samples retained >10 6 cfu/g of bacteria during storage for pro-biotic benefit. The B vitamin content was found to be increased from 20 to 320 μg/g during storage, whereas the survival of the microorganisms decreased from 8.9 to 7.5 log 10 cfu/g. © 2011 Copyright Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers.