摘要
Modern consumers are increasingly interested in their personal health, and expect the food that they eat to be healthy or even capable of preventing illness. Gut health in general has shown to be the key sector for functional foods in Europe. The probiotic yoghurt market is well established but the key growth sector recently has been the probiotic drinks. The popularity of dose-delivery systems for probiotic drinks has also resulted in research efforts targeted to developing probiotic foods outside the dairy sector. New product categories, and thus novel and more difficult raw materials with regard to technology of probiotics, will certainly be the key research and development area for future functional food markets.
The viability and stability of probiotics has been both a marketing and technological challenge for industrial producers. Probiotic foods should contain specific probiotic strains and maintain a suitable level of viable cells during the product's shelf life. Unless strict demands are set on probiotic product definition and labelling their regulatory definition will remain obscure. The technological demands placed on probiotic strains are great and new manufacturing process and formulation technologies may often be required for bacteria primarily selected for their functional health properties. Before probiotic strains can be delivered to consumers, they must first be able to be manufactured under industrial conditions, and then survive and retain their functionality during storage as frozen or freeze-dried cultures, and also in the food products into which they are finally formulated. The probiotic strains should also survive the gastrointestinal stress factors and maintain their functionality within the host. Additionally, they must be able to be incorporated into foods without producing off-flavours or textures—they should be viable but not growing. The packaging materials used and the conditions under which the products are stored are also important for the quality of products.
Future technological prospects exist in innovations finding solutions for the stability and viability problems of probiotics in new food environments. Current research on novel probiotic formulations and microencapsulation technologies exploiting biological carrier and barrier materials and systems for enteric release provides promising results. Maintenance of low production costs will remain the challenge for future probiotic process and formulation technologies. Exploitation of food-grade raw materials such as native, and physically or enzymatically treated starches, is one example of future technology that has the potential to meet the challenge of broadening the range of food types into which probiotic ingredients can be successfully incorporated. Novel developments for control release systems in foods and pharmaceuticals will also provide new possibilities.
摘要译文
现代消费者越来越关注他们的个人健康，并期望他们吃的食物是健康的，甚至能够预防疾病。肠道健康总体上已被证明是欧洲功能性食品的关键部门。益生菌酸奶市场已经建立，但最近关键的增长领域是益生菌饮料。益生菌饮料的剂量递送系统的普及也导致了针对在乳品部门之外开发益生菌食品的研究工作。新产品类别，因此，益生菌技术方面新颖，难度较大的原料，必将成为未来功能性食品市场的重点研发领域。益生菌的可行性和稳定性一直是工业生产者的营销和技术挑战。益生菌食品应含有特定的益生菌菌株，并在产品的保质期内保持适当水平的活细胞。除非对益生菌产品定义和标签提出严格要求，否则其监管定义仍将模糊不清。对益生菌菌株的要求很高，并且对于主要根据其功能性健康特性选择的细菌通常可能需要新的制造工艺和配制技术。在将益生菌菌株交付给消费者之前，它们必须首先能够在工业条件下生产，然后在作为冷冻或冷冻干燥的培养物储存期间以及最终配制它们的食品中存活并保持其功能。益生菌菌株还应在胃肠道应激因子中存活并在宿主体内维持其功能。另外，它们必须能够掺入食物中而不会产生异味或质地 - 它们应该是可行的但不能生长。使用的包装材料和储存产品的条件对于产品质量也很重要。目前关于利用生物载体和屏障材料以及用于肠释放的系统的新型益生菌制剂和微囊化技术的研究提供了有希望的结果。维持低生产成本仍将是未来益生菌工艺和配方技术面临的挑战。开发食品级原料，如土生土长的，以及物理或酶处理的淀粉，是未来技术的一个例子，它有可能满足扩大食品类型范围的挑战，益生菌成分可以成功地纳入其中。食品和药品控制释放系统的新发展也将提供新的可能性。
T.Mattila-Sandholm[a];P.Myllärinen[a];R.Crittenden[a];G.Mogensen[b];R.Fondén[c];M.Saarela[a];. Technological challenges for future probiotic foods[J]. International Dairy Journal, 2002,12(2-3): 173-182