Journal of Applied Microbiology 2005, 98, 14101417

doi:10.1111/j.1365-2672.2005.02654.x

A REVIEW
Overcoming the technological hurdles in the development
of probiotic foods
R.P. Ross1,2, C. Desmond2,3, G.F. Fitzgerald1,3 and C. Stanton1,2
1

Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre, Cork, 2Teagasc Biotechnology, Dairy Products Research Centre, Moorepark,
Fermoy, Co., Cork, and 3Department of Microbiology, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland

2004/0793: received 7 July 2004, revised and accepted 16 March 2005

1. Summary, 1410
2. Introduction, 1410
3. Selection of probiotic strains for technological performance, 1411
4. The use of protectants and micro-encapsulation for
probiotic stabilization, 1412

1. SUMMARY
While it is undoubted that clinical evidence supporting the
health-promoting activity of probiotic cultures is of paramount importance, it is probably less well appreciated that the
technological suitability of these strains is also critical to their
exploitation. In this respect, it is not surprising that many
human intestinal isolates, many of which are obligatively
anaerobic grow very poorly outside their natural habitat, the
human gut. Indeed, much of the human intestinal flora are at
present unculturable and can only be studied using cultureindependent approaches. Consequently, the large-scale cultivation and subsequent storage of probiotic lactobacilli and
bifidobacteria in high numbers often presents a major
bottleneck to the realization of their commercial potential.
For this reason, intensive research efforts have recently
focussed on protecting the viability of probiotic cultures both
during product manufacture and storage and during gastric
transit. These studies have demonstrated that cultures can be
significantly protected via encapsulation in a variety of
carriers, which include milk proteins and complex (prebiotic)
carbohydrates. In many cases, the resultant products not only
have better probiotic viability but can also be regarded as

synbiotics given the presence of probiotics and prebiotics
(Roberfroid 1998). The physiological state of the probiotic
cultures being added to a product can also be a major factor
affecting overall culture viability. In this respect, the inducCorrespondence to: C. Stanton, Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre, Teagasc,
Moorepark, Fermoy, Co. Cork, Ireland (e-mail: cstanton@moorepark.teagasc.ie).

5. Exploitation of cellular stress responses for enhanced

technological performance, 1413
6. Conclusions, 1415
7. Acknowledgements, 1415
8. References, 1415

tion of stress responses in probiotic strains can have a dramatic

effect on the ability of cultures to survive processing, such as
freeze drying and spray drying and during gastric transit.
Indeed, we have recently generated probiotic cultures that
overexpress the heat shock proteins GroESL and have
demonstrated improved performance of the culture under a
variety of conditions including heat, spray drying and
exposure to gastric acid (Desmond et al. 2004). The addition
of various protective compounds to probiotic cultures can also
improve their viability during manufacture examples
include glucose to energize cells on exposure to acid (Corcoran
et al. 2005) and cryoprotectents such as inulin to improve
survivability during freeze drying (Carvalho et al. 2004). In
conclusion, a number of novel technologies are now emerging
which can improve the viability of human intestinal strains for
probiotic applications, which means that it may be possible to
exploit many
sensitive cultures which hitherto have been
difficult to propagate and maintain at high cell numbers.
2. INTRODUCTION
Probiotics are described as
live micro-organisms which
when administered in adequate numbers confer a health
benefit on the host (FAO/WHO 2001). They are commonly
included in fermented milks, yoghurts and cheese, but are
also available in the form of dietary supplements where the
probiotic is in the form of a dried product. Probioticcontaining foods can be categorized as functional foods, and
along with prebiotics represent the largest segment of the
functional foods market in Europe, Japan and Australia. The
2005 The Society for Applied Microbiology

TECHNOLOGICAL HURDLES AND DEVELOPMENT OF PROBIOTIC FOODS

market for this food category continues to expand, in parallel

with growing consumer awareness of the role of diet in
health maintenance (Stanton et al. 2001), and represents an
exciting market opportunity for the Food and Dairy
Industries.
Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium species are the most
commonly used probiotics in foods for human consumption
given the significant health benefits associated with ingestion
of these micro-organisms (see Stanton et al. 2003a,b for
review). While the purpose of this manuscript is not to review
the clinical evidence supporting these probiotic strains, it is
nonetheless worth mentioning the significant inroads that
have been made in the demonstration of health benefits of
certain strains. Examples where clinical studies have shown
health improvement associated with consumption of probiotics include reduction in the incidence of childhood atopic
eczema (Isolauri et al. 1999; Kalliomaki et al. 2001), decrease
in rotavirus shedding in infants (Saavedra et al. 1994) and
reductions in antibiotic-associated diarrhoea (Plummer et al.
2004). These micro-organisms share a number of common
traits, such as generally regarded as safe (GRAS) status, acid
and bile tolerance, and ability to adhere to intestinal cells
(Dunne et al. 2001). For successful delivery in foods,
probiotics must survive food processing and storage during
product maturation and shelf-life (see Stanton et al. 2003a for
review). It is recommended that the probiotic culture must be
present in the product at minimum numbers of
107 CFU ml)1 and even higher numbers have been recommended (Ishibashi and Shimamura 1993; Lee and Salminen
1995). In addition, the probiotic food product should be
regularly consumed in sufficient quantities to deliver the
relevant
dose of live bacteria to the gut, keeping in mind the
losses in cell viability typically encountered during gastric
transit. Consequently, the technological issues relating to the
development of foods containing these bacteria in sufficient
numbers throughout shelf-life need to be overcome, as well as
means of stabilization following ingestion, i.e. during exposure to the adverse conditions of the human gastrointestinal
tract (GIT).
Preparation of bulk cultures can be a difficult and timeconsuming process, especially where probiotic cultures are
concerned, because of poor growth rates in synthetic and milkbased media. An economical method of production of reliable
cultures for direct addition to process milk is clearly desirable,
with the trend being towards direct vat inoculation, with
concentrated starter cultures most commonly supplied in
frozen, concentrated or freeze-dried forms. Freeze-dried
powders and frozen concentrates of probiotic Lactobacillus
and Bifidobacterium spp. have been developed, and while less
attention has focussed on spray drying as a means of probiotic culture preparation, recent studies have demonstrated
the potential of this approach for some strains including
Lactobacillus acidophilus cultures (Espina and Packard 1979;

1411

Prajapati et al. 1987), Lactobacillus paracasei (Gardiner et al.

2000; Desmond et al. 2001, 2002), and other probiotics
including Bifidobacterium spp. (ORiordan et al. 2001; Lian
et al. 2002; Simpson et al. 2005).
The purpose of this review is to examine approaches that
have been investigated for ensuring the technological
performance of probiotics including strain selection, and
probiotic stabilization during spray drying and/or freeze
drying and gastric transit, involving the use of protectants,
micro-encapsulation, and the exploitation of inherent stress
response of the cell.
3. SELECTION OF PROBIOTIC STRAINS
FOR TECHNOLOGICAL PERFORMANCE
Fasting pH in the stomach may be as low as 15 (Waterman
and Small 1998), and consequently one of the first
challenges encountered by probiotics following ingestion is
ability to survive in such acidic conditions. Ability to tolerate
digestive stresses is among the criteria reported to be
important, and furthermore, ability of probiotics to tolerate
heat, osmotic and oxygen stresses are useful properties for
the successful incorporation of probiotic bacteria into
functional foods (see Table 1 for a list of properties of
probiotics from both technological and intestinal perspectives). From a technological point of view, it would be
advantageous if probiotics were capable of growth in milkbased media and of survival during product manufacture
and shelf-life (see Stanton et al. 2003a for review). Furthermore, the presence of the probiotic culture in the food
product should not adversely affect product quality or
sensory properties.
Initial assessment of strains for use as probiotic cultures
using such assays as acid and bile tolerance, can provide
useful information for predicting their performance during
gastric transit, and selection of strains based on tolerance to
certain stresses, such as acid may also be useful predictors of
technological performance in fermented foods. The ability of
potentially probiotic strains to survive in acidic conditions
has been investigated in a number of studies, which have
shown great variation between strains and species. Hood and
Zottola (1988) showed that no cells of a Lactobacillus
Table 1 Technological properties of probiotics
Physiological trait

Reference

Oxygen tolerance
Acid tolerance
Bile tolerance
Heat tolerance
Ability to grow in milk
Ability to metabolize prebiotics

Kulisaar et al. (2002)

Shah (2000)
Charteris et al. (1998)
Desmond et al. (2001)
Klaver et al. (1993)
Ziemer and Gibson (1998)

2005 The Society for Applied Microbiology, Journal of Applied Microbiology, 98, 14101417, doi:10.1111/j.1365-2672.2005.02654.x

1412 R . P . R O S S ET AL.

acidophilus culture were recovered following 45 min exposure to pH 20, while at pH 40 the number of cells was not
significantly reduced after 2 h. Similar trends have been
shown for survival of Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG in human
gastric juice at pH values ranging from 10 to 70 (Goldin
et al. 1992). In general, Bifidobacterium cultures are less acid
tolerant than Lactobacillus cultures and this is reflected by
their reduced tolerance to human gastric juice (Dunne et al.
1999).
Furthermore, the importance of the food carrier such as
dairy products may enhance microbial survival in gastric
juice, most likely due to a buffering or protective effect.
Studies in our laboratory have demonstrated the protective
effect of Cheddar cheese, compared with yoghurt as a food
carrier for delivery of viable probiotic lactobacilli (Stanton
et al. 1998) and enterococci (Gardiner et al. 1999) to the
GIT. This effect may be due to the buffering capacity of the
food product. Addition of milk or milk proteins to gastric
juice or media simulating gastric juice significantly increased
the pH and enhances survival of some Lactobacillus and
Bifidobacterium species (Charteris et al. 1998).
Lactobacilli are mainly acid tolerant or aciduric, particularly when isolated from the harsh environment of the GIT
(McLauchlan et al. 1998). This approach has been used in
screening of human faecal Bifidobacterium and has yielded
strains which are both acid and bile tolerant (Chung et al.
1999). These stressed cultures have superior ability to survive
in the presence of bile and acid compared with other isolates.
Using a similar approach, Chou and Weimer (1999) isolated
acid and bile resistant Lactobacillus acidophilus variants and
showed that these cultures have distinctly different properties
compared with parent cultures. Moreover, a study conducted
by Park et al. (1995) showed that acid-adapted Bifidobacterium
breve exhibits superior survival characteristics compared with
non-adapted cells, not only in acidic conditions, but also in
the presence of other environmental stresses such as bile,
hydrogen peroxide and cold storage. Acid-resistant strains
selected in such a way may prove useful for probiotic
applications and may exhibit enhanced survival both in host
environmental conditions and in food systems.
4. THE USE OF PROTECTANTS AND MICROENCAPSULATION FOR PROBIOTIC
STABILIZATION
Probiotic cultures for food applications are frequently
supplied in frozen, or dried form, either as freeze-dried or
spray-dried powders (Lievense and Vant Reit 1993; Holzapfel et al. 2001). The successful drying of lactobacilli and
bifidobacteria has previously been reported for a number of
different strains, including Lactobacillus paracasei (Gardiner
et al. 2000; Desmond et al. 2001), Lactobacillus curvatus and
Lactobacillus sp. 8Z (Mauriello et al. 1999), Lactobacillus

acidophilus (Prajapati et al. (1987), Lactobacillus bulgaricus

(Teixeira et al. (1995), Lactobacillus helveticus (Johnson and
Etzel 1995), Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (Corcoran et al.
2004) and Bifidobacterium ruminantium (ORiordan et al.
2001). Most probiotic lactobacilli do not survive well,
however, during the temperature and osmotic extremes to
which they are exposed during the spray-drying process
(Teixeira et al. 1995; Selmer-Olsen et al. 1999; Gardiner
et al. 2000; Silva et al. 2002). When used for the preservation of potential probiotic cultures much of their activity is
typically lost after a few weeks of storage at room
temperature. This is associated with stress that is induced
by temperature changes, phase changes and drying, a
combination of which tend to damage cell membranes and
proteins.
Spray-dried powder harbouring high numbers of viable
probiotics is a convenient means of storage and transport of
probiotic cultures and their subsequent application in
functional foods. While spray drying is an economical
process for the large-scale preparation of these cultures,
and is commonly used for the preparation of food
ingredients, it suffers from the disadvantage of causing
bacterial cell injury and death, which has been attributed
primarily to the effects of heat and dehydration leading to
destruction of the properties and performance characteristics of probiotic cultures (Teixeira et al. 1995; To and
Etzel 1997a,b). One approach used by a number of workers
to improve probiotic performance in food systems is the
addition of protectants to the media prior to drying. For
example, the incorporation of thermoprotectants such as
trehalose (Conrad et al. 2000), non-fat milk solids and/or
adonitol (Selmer-Olsen et al. 1999; Corcoran et al. 2004),
growth-promoting factors, including various probiotic/
prebiotic combinations (Modler et al. 1990; Mituoka
1992; Desmond et al. 2002; Corcoran et al. 2004) and
granular starch (Crittenden et al. 2001) have been
employed in efforts to improve culture viability during
drying, storage and/or gastric transit. In recent studies
conducted in our laboratory, the incorporation of the
soluble fibre, gum acacia in milk-based medium prior to
spray drying the probiotic Lactobacillus paracasei NFBC
338, increased probiotic viability during powder storage,
compared with milk powder alone (Desmond et al. 2002).
However, other prebiotics investigated, including inulin
and polydextrose did not enhance probiotic viability during
spray drying or powder storage (Corcoran et al. 2004).
Furthermore, the addition of cryoprotectants during
freeze drying of lactobacilli has been used to help overcome
inactivation during drying and stabilization during storage.
In a recent study, freeze-dried Lactobacillus bulgaricus
survived better during storage at )20
C over 10 months
when cells had been grown in the presence of fructose,
lactose or mannose or when glucose, fructose or sorbitol

2005 The Society for Applied Microbiology, Journal of Applied Microbiology, 98, 14101417, doi:10.1111/j.1365-2672.2005.02654.x

were added to the drying medium (Carvalho et al. 2004). In

particular, trehalose, a disaccharide of glucose, has been
found to be effective at protecting proteins during freezing
and drying (Garcia De Castro et al. 2000).
Encapsulation, as a means of protecting live cells from
extremes of heat or moisture, such as those experienced
during drying and storage, is a technique that is
increasingly used in the probiotic food industry (Sheu
and Marshall 1993; Millqvist-Fureby et al. 2000; ORiordan et al. 2001). This technique allows the active core
ingredient, or substrate, to be separated from its environment by a protective film or coating. This separation
occurs until the release of the functional ingredient is
desired. For the incorporation of probiotics into food
products, micro-encapsulation offers protection to fine
particles such as those produced during the spray drying
of probiotic concentrates. Several methods of microencapsulation of probiotic bacteria have been reported
and include spray drying, extrusion, emulsion and phase
separation (see Siuta-Cruce and Goulet 2001; Kailasapathy
2002 for review). In a study by Guerin et al. (2003),
Bifidobacterium bifidum cells encapsulated in gel beads
composed of alginate, pectin, and whey proteins, and
surrounded by two membranes exhibited good survival at
pH 25 for up to 2 h, while free cells did not survive
under these conditions, and furthermore protection was
also afforded by this system, when the cells were exposed
to bile salt solutions. Furthermore, it was found that
encapsulating lactobacilli in calcium-alginate beads improved their heat tolerance (Selmer-Olsen et al. 1999),
while this technology has also been shown to prolong the
viability during storage of a spray-dried Bifidobacterium
ruminatium (ORiordan et al. 2001). The incorporation of
gum acacia in the drying medium has also been successfully used to improve the stability of dried Lactobacillus
paracasei NFBC 338 during powder storage at 15 and
30
C, by up to 1000-fold, and also afforded protection to
bifidobacteria (Lian et al. (2002). Furthermore, viability of
probiotic lactobacilli in gum acacia-containing powders
was 100-fold higher when exposed to porcine gastric juice
over 120 min (Fig. 1), compared with the control spraydried culture (Desmond et al. 2002). In addition, it has
been reported that exopolysaccharide-producing strains of
bifidobacteria may be naturally protected (Roberts et al.
1995).
5. E X P L O I T A T I O N O F C E L L U L A R S T R E S S
RESPONSES FOR ENHANCED
TECHNOLOGICAL PERFORMANCE
Acid adaptation, whereby tolerance to acid stress can be
induced by exposure to acidic conditions has previously
been observed in food pathogens, such as Listeria monocy-

Percentage survival

TECHNOLOGICAL HURDLES AND DEVELOPMENT OF PROBIOTIC FOODS

1413

1
01
001
0001
00001
000001
0

20

40

60
80
Time (min)

100

120

Fig. 1 Survival of control (r) and gum acacia-treated (j) spray-dried

Lactobacillus paracasei NFBC 338 in porcine gastric juice at pH 30.
The data shown represent the combined mean of three trials (with
permission from Desmond et al. 2002)

togenes and Salmonella choleraesuis serotype Typhimurium

(Foster and Hall 1990; Gahan et al. 1996) and can greatly
enhance the survival of these cultures in low-pH environments. Such an acid tolerance response, although undesirable for pathogenic organisms, can be advantageous when
applied to probiotic cultures. Indeed, much research effort
has recently been focused on understanding the stress
response mechanisms of lactobacilli in order to improve
their capacity to survive and function under industrial
production conditions (Kullen and Klaenhammer 1999;
Walker et al. 1999; Desmond et al. 2001; Prasad et al. 2003).
Acid adaptation has successfully been used to exploit the
acid stress response of Lactobacillus acidophilus in order to
enhance survival of the culture in normally lethal acid
conditions and in yoghurt (Shah 2000). Indeed up-regulation of genes involved in the acid stress response, such as
F1F0-ATPase (a key mechanism for extrusion of protons in
the response and tolerance to low pH in Lactobacillus
acidophilus (Kullen and Klaenhammer 1999) has also been
shown to produce dramatic changes in culture performance.
Another stress that probiotic micro-organisms may
encounter during functional food development is oxygen
stress. Oxygen dissolves easily in milk, thus viability of
micro-organisms in fermented dairy foods is particularly
influenced by oxygen content in the product in addition to
oxygen permeation through the package (Shah 2000). Ahn
et al. (2001) examined the effect of oxygen stress on
Bifidobacterium longum and found that a protein, Osp, was
upregulated in an oxygen-tolerant Bifidobacterium strain.
From this study, exploitation of the oxidative stress response
in bifidobacteria and the expression levels of Osp, may
provide suitable targets for enhancing the oxygen tolerance
of probiotic bacteria in functional food development and in
the intestinal microbial ecosystem.
Control of the resistance of probiotic bacteria to temperature stress may also have potential practical benefits in
industrial fermentation processes in which bacteria with
enhanced thermotolerance are required. Heat-inducible
thermotolerance allows bacteria, after a non-lethal heat

2005 The Society for Applied Microbiology, Journal of Applied Microbiology, 98, 14101417, doi:10.1111/j.1365-2672.2005.02654.x

1414 R . P . R O S S ET AL.

Percentage survival

(a)

40
30
20
10
0

10

95 100

100 105

Outlet temperature
(b)
Percentage survival

40
30
20
10
0
95 100

100 105

10
Outlet temperature

Fig. 2 (a) Percentage survival (CFU g)1) of (j) control and ( ) heatadapted (52
C 15 min) Lactobacillus paracasei NFBC 338 during
spray-drying at outlet temperatures of 95100 and 100105
C. (b)
Percentage survival (CFU g)1) of (j) control and ( ) salt-adapted
(03 mol l)1 NaCl 30 min) Lactobacillus paracasei NFBC 338 during
spray-drying at outlet temperatures of 95100 and 100105
C (with
permission from Desmond et al. 2001)

shock, to tolerate a second heat stress higher in intensity

(Boutibonnes et al. 1992). Teixeira et al. (1994) and Gouesbet et al. (2002) reported that heat adaptation increased the
thermotolerance of lactobacilli. Similarly, a heat-adapted
probiotic, Lactobacillus paracasei NFBC 338, exhibited
greater thermotolerance (survival at a lethal temperature of
60
C) compared with controls in liquid media and during
spray drying (Fig. 2a), where viability of the adapted culture
was enhanced 18-fold (Desmond et al. 2001). In addition,
Gouesbet et al. (2002) and Desmond et al. (2001) demonstrated the acquisition of a cross-stress tolerance (to heat) in
lactobacilli by exposure to mild osmotic stress. The effect of
salt adaptation (03 mol l)1 NaCl for 30 min) on the heat
resistance of Lactobacillus paracasei NFBC 338 during
spray drying was also investigated (Desmond et al. 2001),
where it was found that viability of the salt-adapted culture
was 16-fold higher than the untreated control culture
dried under the same conditions (Fig. 2b; Desmond et al.
2001).
There have been intensive research efforts into the genetic
characterization of probiotic bacteria in the last decade,
which have resulted in two main outcomes. The first of
these is the development of improved technologies which

have made both lactobacilli and to a lesser extent bifidobacteria more amenable to genetic manipulation. Such advances
have included both the design of improved vectors and
mutagenesis systems and the development of efficient
transformation/electroporation protocols for many strains
(Aymerich et al. 1993; Wei et al. 1995; Lin et al. 1996; Rossi
et al. 1997; McCracken and Timms 1999). The second
outcome has been the dramatic increase in sequence
information for intestinal lactobacilli and bifidobacteria
which has recently culminated in the availability of entire
genome sequence data for a number of strains including
Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus johnsonii and Bifidobacterium longum while incomplete genome information is
available for many other human intestinal isolates (Klaenhammer et al. 2002; Renault 2002).
The combination of these genetic advances and genome
information opens up future possibilities for the development and design of more efficacious probiotic strains. Such
sophisticated technologies will not only facilitate our
understanding of the molecular mechanisms whereby probiotic strains exert health-promoting effects in the human
intestine but will also allow new probiotic functionalities to
be delivered to some strains. For example, the development
of live recombinant vaccines which involves the introduction
of immunostimulatory sequences to food grade bacteria
offers a very exciting approach to the protection of the host
from infections and bowel disorders such as irritable bowel
syndrome and Crohns disease. Examples of such an
approach include the expression of a Streptococcus mutans
surface protein antigen in Lactococcus lactis which when
administered to mice successfully stimulated antigen-specific IgA and IgG immune responses (Iwaki et al. 1990). In
another study, genetically engineered Lactococcus lactis
secreting murine interleukin 10 was administered to IL-10
knockout mice in which chronic colitis had been induced
(Steidler et al. 2000). This study showed that the treated
mice demonstrated close to 50% decrease in pathological
symptoms, and four of 10 mice in the treated group had the
histological characteristics of healthy mice. This interleukin10 model system where the therapeutic agent is synthesized
by food-grade bacteria is a major breakthrough in the
development of localized delivery vehicles (Seegers 2002),
and has recently been approved for use in human clinical
trials.
Adopting a genetic manipulation approach to the
improvement of probiotic cultures also has potential in
increasing their viability when exposed to stressful environments such as those encountered during functional food
development or during gastric transit. For example, we
have demonstrated that overexpression of the heat shock
protein chaperones GroES and GroEL in Lactobacillus
paracasei NFBC338 greatly improved the ability of cultures
to withstand thermal stress. In this case, the NICE

2005 The Society for Applied Microbiology, Journal of Applied Microbiology, 98, 14101417, doi:10.1111/j.1365-2672.2005.02654.x

TECHNOLOGICAL HURDLES AND DEVELOPMENT OF PROBIOTIC FOODS

(Nisin-Induced Controlled Expression) (Kleerebezem et al.

1997) system was used and resulted in GroESL overexpression to 15 and 20% of the total cellular protein in the
strain (Desmond et al. 2004). The GroESL-overproducing
strain exhibited a 10-fold increase in thermotolerance,
when compared with adapted parent strains, which exhibited up to 54-fold increase over unadapted control cultures
under identical conditions. Interestingly, the strain overproducing GroESL also exhibited increased solvent tolerance, most notably, the ability to grow in the presence of
butanol (05%, v/v) over 5 h, while viability of the parent
strain declined (Desmond et al. 2004). These results
demonstrate the potential of increasing both the technological suitability and expanding the probiotic performance
of intestinal strains through food-grade genetic manipulation approaches. Obviously, however, the safety and
efficacy of such strains would need to be tested in detail.
6. CONCLUSIONS
Undoubtedly, the most important aspect of the functionality of probiotic cultures is their ability to promote human
health at the site of action. However, prior to achieving
this, the cultures must be ingested and survive gastric
transit in sufficient numbers to elicit their effects. Given
that most intestinal isolates can be difficult to cultivate
in vitro, the efficient delivery of live cultures represents a
major challenge in probiotic product development. In this
review, we have attempted to outline some novel approaches to improve the survival of probiotic strains during
processing in food systems and following ingestion. Such
approaches range from encapsulation of the probiotic
strains in prebiotic substances (synbiotics) to genetic
manipulation. It is hoped that these innovations will result
in more efficacious and diverse probiotic products in the
future, leading ultimately to improved consumer health.
7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was funded by the Irish Government under the
National Development Plan 200006, by the European
Research and Development Fund, and by the EU Project
QLK1-CT-2000-30042. C. Desmond is in receipt of a
Teagasc Walsh Fellowship.
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