Functional food is any food or ingredient that beyond their basic nutritional functions produces metabolic, physiological and health benefits. In this context there is kefir, a fermented dairy beverage containing a high content of yeasts and probiotic lactic bacteria. Lately consumers are looking for tasty and healthy food and the ice cream industry seems to be an area with potential for the development of products containing probiotics. A kefir based ice cream was developed using a homemade ice cream recipe and the amount of total lactic bacteria (TAB) was determined. This same analysis was performed in the kefir used on the ice cream preparation in order to evaluate losses in its processing. The determination of TAB were performed using the depth spreading technique, with "Man Rogosa Sharpe" culture medium, obtaining a higher kefir count (1.1 x 108 UFC/ml) than in the developed ice cream (1.91 x 107 UFC/ml). The decrease on the number of viable cells can be caused by the processing which includes steps like blending and a decrease in temperature. The minimum amount of microorganisms for the food to be considered functional food, according to ANVISA (BRASIL, 2008), should be between 108 and 109 UFC on the daily recommendation of the ready for consumption product and the developed ice cream has 109 UFC/ml viable bacteria when considerate the portion determined in RDC 359 (BRASIL, 2003). Therefore, the developed ice cream can be labeled as functional food being then a product with commercialization potential.