2 - Exopolysaccharides from fermented dairy products and health promotion

Abstract

Apart from imparting sensory benefits through structural, and hence textural changes in fermented dairy foods, a body of emerging evidence has begun to demonstrate that exopolysaccharides (EPSs) from fermented dairy products are associated with beneficial nutritional and health attributes. These EPSs, which are produced by some of the lactic acid bacteria (LAB) at the expense of a limited energy supply, are thought to serve to protect the EPS-producing bacteria against phages, toxins and stressful physical conditions. This chapter sets out to review evidence for the physiological nutritional value that could also arise from the perspective of the biochemical “connections” that LAB EPSs seem to have with the digestive system's surface cells, its ecology, and enteric pathogens that may be present.