Abstract
Botanical fermented foods have been shown to improve human health, based on the activity of potentially beneficial lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and yeasts and their metabolic outputs. However, few studies have explored the effects of prolonged storage and functional spices on microbial viability of whole fermented foods from fermentation to digestion. Even fewer have assessed their impact on the gut microbiota. Our study investigated the effects of production processes on LAB and yeast microbial viability and gut microbiota composition. We achieved this by using physicochemical assessments and an in vitro gastrointestinal and a porcine gut microbiota model. In low-salt sauerkraut, we assessed the effects of salt concentration, starter cultures, and prolonged storage, and in tibicos, prolonged storage and the addition of spices cayenne, ginger, and turmeric. In both food matrices, LAB counts significantly increased (p<0.05), reaching a peak of 7–8 log cfu/g, declining to 6–6.5 log cfu/g by day 96. Yeast viability remained at 5–6 log cfu/g in tibicos. Ginger tibicos had significantly increased LAB and yeast viability during fermentation and storage (p<0.05). For maximum microbial consumption, tibicos should be consumed within 28days, and sauerkraut, 7weeks. Simulated upper GI digestion of both products resulted in high microbial survival rates of 70–80%. The 82% microbial survival rate of cayenne tibicos was significantly higher than other treatments (p<0.05). 16S rRNA sequencing of simulated porcine colonic microbiota showed that both spontaneously fermented sauerkraut and tibicos increase the relative abundance of Megasphaera 85-fold. These findings will inform researchers, producers, and consumers about the factors that affect the microbial content of fermented foods, and their potential effects on the gut.
Highlights
Botanical fermented foods are microbially transformed plant products rich in health-promoting components
Botanical fermented food components are of increasing interest as potential beneficial modulators of gut microbiota for the management of metabolic noncommunicable diseases (Şanlier et al, 2019), but few studies focus on their application as whole foods from production to digestion
Our study showed that lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and yeasts in sauerkraut and tibicos can be manipulated during production and storage for maximal microbial viability, may have higher survival rates when digested in their native whole food matrix, and can impact the relative abundance of gut bacteria
Summary
Botanical fermented foods are microbially transformed plant products rich in health-promoting components. These non-dairy plant-based functional foods potentially manipulate the microbiotagut-metabolism axis (Mäkinen et al, 2016; Gille et al, 2018). There has been an Fermented Foods Affect Gut Microbiota increase in research characterizing their extracted bioactive components (Değirmencioğlu et al, 2016; Septembre-Malaterre et al, 2018), isolated microbial strains, and their metabolites (Yu et al, 2013; London et al, 2014; Lara-Hidalgo et al, 2017; Angelescu et al, 2019; Romero-Luna et al, 2019, 2020). Botanical fermented foods are cheap, made, and consumed globally. This makes them excellent candidates for the dietary management of pro-inflammatory noncommunicable diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome
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