Short communicationUse of a probiotic Bifidobacterium in a dry food matrix, an in vivo study
Introduction
Probiotics are defined as living microorganisms, which upon ingestion in certain numbers exert health benefits (Guarner and Schaafsma, 1998). Probiotics are traditionally included in dairy foods (Stanton et al., 2002), although fermented non-dairy based products are on the market too (Molin, 2001). These products have in common that they have to be stored and transported at refrigerated temperatures and have a rather short shelf life. To circumvent these limitations, probiotics have been included in dietary supplements. However, an alternative approach would be to include probiotics in a dry food matrix.
Selected probiotics have many different documented health benefits (Saavedra and Tschernia, 2002). One of the well-investigated probiotics is Bifidobacterium lactis Bb-12. This strain was originally isolated from the faeces of a healthy adult (Kirjavainen et al., 2002) and has been marketed for more than 15 years in a wide range of fermented dairy and non-dairy products. B. lactis Bb-12 has been reported to reduce the incidence of rotavirus diarrhoea (Saavedra et al., 1994), antibiotic-associated diarrhoea (Black et al., 1991) and travellers' diarrhoea (Black et al., 1989). Furthermore, the strain has been observed to modulate the immune response by improving the antibody titres upon oral vaccination (Fukushima et al., 1998) and by reducing the severity of atopic dermatitis (Isolauri et al., 2000).
The inclusion of probiotics in a dry food matrix poses different challenges than liquid probiotic products. The current study describes the detection of B. lactis in the faeces of healthy human volunteers after consumption of a B. lactis Bb-12 containing oat-based cereal bar and compares these results with earlier studies where B. lactis Bb-12 was detected in faeces after being consumed in dairy products.
Section snippets
Materials and methods
B. lactis Bb-12 was purchased as a freeze dried preparation from Chr. Hansen (Hørsholm, Denmark) and included in an oat-based cereal bar composed of the following ingredients: oat bran, sugar, vegetable fats and oil, skim milk powder, rolled oats, oat starch, rice flour, starch syrup, wheat germ, syrup, wheat starch, wheat flour, coconut flakes, soy lecithin and berry product (Cloetta Fazer, Vantaa, Finland). Total fibre content of the cereal bar was 8.3% and β-glucan 3.3%. The water activity (a
Results and discussion
Probiotics are traditionally included in fermented dairy products; these products require refrigerated transport and storage. This is costly and limits the application of probiotics. The inclusion of probiotics in a dry food matrix would therefore have advantages but this has received little attention to date. Here, we describe the detection of B. lactis Bb-12 in faeces after consumption of an oat-based cereal bar containing 5×109 B. lactis Bb-12.
B. lactis Bb-12 was detected in the faeces of
Acknowledgements
Financial support was obtained from Cloetta Fazer, Vantaa, Finland. Ms. Inka Tulonen is gratefully acknowledged for technical assistance.
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