Dried cell-free fraction of fermented milks: new functional additives for the food industry

The claimed health benefits of fermented functional foods are exerted either directly through ingested live microorganisms (probiotics) or indirectly as a result of ingestion of microbial metabolites produced during the fermentation process. Several reports are emerging concerning the immunomodulating capacity of the cell-free fraction of fermented milks. The soluble metabolites present in the whole non-bacterial fraction could be easily spray-dried and added as dried powders to food matrixes whose chemical composition or technological process of manufacture would seriously threaten the viability of probiotic bacteria. The relative technological easiness for incorporating the same biologically active metabolites present in fermented milks, but as a dried cell-free fraction, into other food matrixes opens the doors to the development of a great new variety of functional foods using food matrixes not suitable nowadays for viable probiotic bacteria. The ability to bring functionality to ordinary food through the incorporation of ingredients from natural sources becomes increasingly attractive to the food industry.