Line of research at the Faculty of Food Engineering (FEA) seeks to diversify the use of probiotics in foods
Specific strains of some bacteria may have beneficial effects on health. Lactobacilli and bifidobacteria are already used in some foods such as fermented milk and yogurt, among others. Consumption for continued periods is associated with possible improvements in the gastrointestinal flora. These beneficial microorganisms, known as probiotics, are defined by the World Health Organization as “live organisms that, when administered in adequate quantities, confer a health benefit on the host”.
The problem is the impossibility of putting probiotics in several other food products due to technological limitations. Probiotics are fragile and, in most cases, do not withstand food processing stages or even their addition to an acidic environment such as orange juice, for example. It is along these lines that a group from the Food Quantitative Microbiology Laboratory, headed by Professor Anderson Sant'Ana, works. Researchers guided by the professor have had success mixing other forms of probiotics into juice, bread, pasta or cream cheese. To this end, they developed research with inactivated or sporulated microorganisms.
Twin sisters Caroline and Carine Nunes de Almada, and Mariana Batista Soares, have already defended their doctorates on the topic at the Faculty of Food Engineering (FEA) at Unicamp. The sisters' work has applied for a patent. Caroline worked with paraprobiotics, which are inactivated probiotic bacteria. Carine dedicated herself to the study of sporulated probiotic microorganisms, while Mariana researched, in particular, how to add sporulated probiotics to cottage cheese.
The manufacture of probiotic curd using traditional probiotic strains of lactobacilli and bifidobacteria imposes many difficulties on researchers and industry, as the manufacturing process of this product involves the use of high temperatures, which would lead to the death of traditional probiotics. “The addition of probiotics after these heat treatments is not feasible from an industrial point of view due to the possibility of recontamination and homogenization difficulties after melting the dough”, explains Professor Anderson Sant'Ana.
In Mariana's research, spores of Bacillus Probiotics proved to be more resistant than probiotics from vegetative cells when placed in contact with different enzymes and pH in the gastrointestinal tract. Likewise, the sporulated probiotics resisted the various technological processes of the food industry simulated by Carine Almada, such as pasteurization, cooking, baking, irradiation or fermentation.
Carine worked with eight strains of probiotic bacilli and a variety of foods, including milk, orange juice, meatballs, bread, chili powder and yogurt. The strain that stood out the most was used to complete research into the production of probiotic bread, orange juice and yogurt, in which analyzes were carried out vitro, with laboratory simulations, and in vivo, with rodents, to evaluate the resistance of probiotics after digestion.
Animals that consumed probiotic yogurt had reduced glucose levels by 10% and triglycerides by 34%. Furthermore, there was a beneficial change in the intestinal microbiota. “The use of probiotic strains of Bacillus This means that a huge range of food products can now be developed”, estimates Sant'Ana. The addition of traditional probiotics would not be possible, as they would not survive the process or storage of these products.
“Despite its potential, there is currently only one probiotic strain of Bacillus with approval for application in food, which means there are great possibilities for discovering new strains with varied beneficial properties. This is a field that can evolve very quickly through the University-industry partnership”, adds the FEA professor.
Paraprobiotics
Scientific literature had already described that, even when dead, probiotics have the potential to cause beneficial effects on health. Furthermore, as Anderson Sant'Ana highlights, the inactivated probiotic, or paraprobiotic, lasts longer and can be added to foods that undergo drastic processes of high temperature and pressure. Another advantage is that it can be administered to immunosuppressed people.
In her doctoral thesis, Caroline Almada worked with live and inactivated lactobacilli and bifidobacteria microorganisms. The first step of the work was to identify the best processes for inactivation in three strains, since the more integrated the probiotic is, the greater the health benefits. The most satisfactory result was the inactivation of a bifidobacteria by irradiation. Caroline added the product to pasta, which was cooked and processed into flour. The mixture administered to rodents helped lower the individuals' cholesterol and glucose levels.
“Thinking about functional foods and in a scenario in which we see an increasing association between the intestinal microbiota and the health of consumers, research constitutes a strategy to modulate the intestinal microbiota so that people can have beneficial effects on their health”, he adds. Sant'Ana.
