Increasing natural food folates through bioprocessing and biotechnology

The present study summarises results on processing effects for folates obtained from an EU-funded folate project (QLK1-1999-00576). Yeast fermentation, malting, germination and Lactobacillus bacteria can be combined and further optimised to potentially enhance the folate content in bread, vegetables, dairy products and beer by 2-3 fold. Further research, exploration and development of folate producing lactic acid bacteria and yeast strains for food applications should be encouraged. Milling technologies can be further developed and by careful selection of raw materials and ingredients, food processing can be designed and optimised to increase folate content (and specific forms) using minimal processing.