Effect of culture-containing dairy products on intestinal microflora, human nutrition and health - current knowledge and future perspectives

摘要

There has been a long-term interest in the use of cultured milks with various strains of lactic acid bacteria and other probiotic bacteria to improve the health of humans and animals. In nature, lactic acid bacteria inhabit two main ecological niches; the mucous membranes of man and animals and food products. Many species of lactic acid bacteria are used commercially for the production of fermented dairy and meat products and other foods. These products include yoghurt, cheese, buttermilk, salami,salami-type sausages and pickled vegetables. The major area currently is fermented milk products. The bulk of evidence on cultured milks and probiotics has been based on anecdotal reports and poorly controlled studies, making the work inconclusive and recommendations difficult. This was also noted in the previous IDF position document by Renner. However, evidence is currently accumulating from well-designed, randomized and placebo-controlled double-blind studies indicating that a few well characterizedlactic acid bacterial strains have documented health-promoting effects when defined doses are administered. Thus, stringent new rules should be applied on all studies conducted with new strains and new types of bacteria (Table 1). Also, every strain should be tested on its own merit since even closely related strains may behave differently in the human intestine. At the same time it is important to compare the impact of different strains to documented similarities and differences between strains of thesame species and families.