NEW PUBLICATIONS: Maintaing probiotic bacteria viable in food and beverage solutions

Monday, 12 January 2009 12:39

Good viability is a prerequisite for optimal probiotic functionality and therefore probiotic products should contain high enough levels of the specific probiotic strain(s) throughout the storage and during consumption. A common feature for most probiotic strains is that they are specialised in living in the human or animal GI tract which makes them well adapted to that special environment, but poorly adapted to other environments.

Probiotic bacteria encounter various stressful conditions during production, formulation into foods, storage and transit in the GI tract. All food applications have some kind of limitations regarding the viability and stability of probiotics. These limitations typically involve factors such as the acidity of the food matrix and storage time and temperature of the product. Therefore special attention has to be paid to the selection of the suitable probiotic strain for a specific food application. Selecting a strain with good technological properties will be a key factor when novel food applications for probiotics are developed.


References:

Alakomi, H.-L., Saarela, M. On the functionality of probiotic bacteria. Influence of processing conditions. Nutrafoods (2008) 7 (2/3), 59-64.

Saarela, M. Functionality of probiotics in milk and juice. CAB Reviews: Perspectives in Agriculture, Veterinary Science, Nutrition and Natural Resources (2008) 3, No. 022, Published Online 4.3.2008.

Saarela, M.H., Alakomi, H.-L., Puhakka, A. Mätto, J. Effect of the fermentation pH on the storage stability of Lactobacillus rhamnosus preparations and suitability of in vitro analyses of cell physiological functions to predict it. Journal of Applied Microbiology. In Press 2008.

Saarela, M.H., Keeping probiotics alive. Challenges and solutions to incorporate probiotics into functional foods - with a special focus on dairy- and fruit-based beverages. International Review of Food Science & Technology. International Union of Food Science and Technology (IUFoST) (2008), 45-48.