Abstract
The popularity of fermented foods and beverages is due to their enhanced shelf-life, safety, functionality, sensory, and nutritional properties. The latter includes the presence of bioactive molecules, vitamins, and other constituents with increased availability due to the process of fermentation. Many fermented foods also contain live microorganisms that may improve gastrointestinal health and provide other health benefits, including lowering the risk of type two diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. The number of organisms in fermented foods can vary significantly, depending on how products were manufactured and processed, as well as conditions and duration of storage. In this review, we surveyed published studies in which lactic acid and other relevant bacteria were enumerated from the most commonly consumed fermented foods, including cultured dairy products, cheese, fermented sausage, fermented vegetables, soy-fermented foods, and fermented cereal products. Most of the reported data were based on retail food samples, rather than experimentally produced products made on a laboratory scale. Results indicated that many of these fermented foods contained 105−7 lactic acid bacteria per mL or gram, although there was considerable variation based on geographical region and sampling time. In general, cultured dairy products consistently contained higher levels, up to 109/mL or g. Although few specific recommendations and claim legislations for what constitutes a relevant dose exist, the findings from this survey revealed that many fermented foods are a good source of live lactic acid bacteria, including species that reportedly provide human health benefits.
Highlights
Fermentation has long been used to preserve and enhance the shelf-life, flavor, texture, and functional properties of food (Hutkins, 2018)
Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) from several genera, including Lactobacillus, Streptococcus, and Leuconostoc are predominant in fermented foods, but other bacteria as well as yeast and fungi contribute to food fermentations
400 published studies were reviewed in which fermented foods were characterized for the presence of live microorganisms
Summary
Fermentation has long been used to preserve and enhance the shelf-life, flavor, texture, and functional properties of food (Hutkins, 2018). For many years, cultured dairy products were the only fermented foods that included label declarations regarding the presence of live microorganisms. To our knowledge, data on the actual levels of live microorganisms in most fermented retail products has not readily been reported or summarized in an organized form. Consumers, despite their interest in probiotics and functional fermented foods (Linares et al, 2017), have had little access to this useful information. Our database search (Google Scholar, WorldCat, Scopus, and PubMed) focused on those studies that enumerated microorganisms exclusively in fermented food products Keywords for these searches included, but were not limited to, the type of fermented food analyzed and, “commercially produced,” “commercial product,” “enumerated,” “lactic acid bacteria,” “microbial characterization,” “probiotic,”. The region or origin of product manufacture was noted
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