Biological Engineering Group Journals

Microbes used for fermentation process of food products develop flavor. Indeed, they also generate bioactive components that enhance the biofunctionality of food products and these foods called functional foods. Increasing prevalence of various chronic diseases i.e. obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer that are associated with poor food habits, demands to develop new microbes for fermented food production that can enhance biofunctionality of foods against these life threatening health ailments. Fermentation process is a process which involves the conversion of large molecules to small molecules or molecular oxidation/ reduction mechanisms mediated by selected micro-organisms. The fermentation technology depends on the microbial components and produces different molecules from small laboratory scale to large industrial scale. During this process various bioactive molecules also be produced, that can exert excellent health benefits for consumers. For example various bacteria and yeast have been used to produce conjugated linolenic acid (CLA), folate, vitamins and other bioactive components. Probiotic organisms are one of the important groups of such micro-organisms that participates in fermentation process of various food products i.e. dairy products. Probiotics are defined as live micro-organisms that exert health beneficial effects to host when administered on sufficient amount. Probiotic have been considered Generally Recognized As Safe for human consumption and known to exhibit various health beneficial effects i.e. anti-cancer, immunomodulatory, anti-oxidant, cardio protective and anti-obese/ diabetic. There are various mechanisms have been proposed for the bioactivity of the probiotics on human health, and one of them is the probiotics mediated production of bioactive components during fermentation process of foods. [Yadav H, Jain S, Rastamanesh R, Bomba A, Catanzaro R et al. (2011) Fermentation Technology in the Development of Functional Foods for Human Health: Where We Should Head]

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Last date updated on April, 2024