Milk fermented with selected strains of lactic acid bacteria is able to improve folate status of deficient rodents and also prevent folate deficiency

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Folate deficiencies are common in many parts of the world. The use of folate producing food grade microorganisms has been proposed as a more natural alternative to fortification with the chemical folic acid. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a novel fermented milk elaborated with adequately selected folate producing lactic acid bacteria. This product was tested using both a rodent depletion–repletion model and a complete deficient model. The folate bio-enriched fermented milk was able to increase plasma folate concentrations and decrease homocysteine levels. This is the first report demonstrating that a naturally folate bio-enriched fermented milk, elaborated with folate-producing starter cultures, not only is effective to improve folate status but can also prevent folate deficiency. Consumers also would obviously benefit from this type of product because they could increase their folate intakes while consuming foods that form part of their normal diets.