Formulation of functional foods using costituents modified by biochemical and physical processes

More recently the food industry, the agricultural community, and now consumers have shown a growing interest in the so-called functional foods. Interesting area of functional foods and one that has reached the grocery shelf is that of components classified as probiotics and prebiotics. The aim of the present work is to develop dry constituent of foods having probiotic and/or prebiotic effects. These products are obtained by using lactic fermentation of foods substrates, as cereals or skim milk. Fermentation of selected substrates has been performed using a microrganism where performances was pointed out and optimized in lab scale tests. This particular strain has shown a good growth performances for several substrates with bacterial concentration much higher than that requested for lives of probiotic standards. The lab-scale protocol has been tested using a fermenter (30 L), pointing out critical points related, essentially, to solid handling and supplying to the fermentation vessel. Experimental tests show the need of performing the fermentation using a suitable protocol able to lower the concentration of undesired microorganisms (i.e. cocci, aerobic) leading to avoided organic acid. Preliminary tests of dehydration of the fermented products have been performed on a pilot scale spray drying.