By CoperNick

Mara Lauriola

May 7, 2020

Today the shelves of supermarkets all over the world are overwhelmed with the so-called “functional foods”. Fermented and probiotic foods are becoming more and more popular among health-conscious consumers. Yogurt, kefir, kombucha, sauerkraut, tempeh and kimchi are only few examples among the trendy products in 2020 and the years to come.

But what is a functional food? And can fermented and probiotic foods be included in this category?
A functional food can be defined as a food item which, besides providing nutrients and energy, is able to deliver some healthy benefits to the human body, by enhancing a certain physiological response and/or by reducing the risk of diseases.

Subsequently, by definition, a probiotic food is a functional food. In fact, probiotic means containing some specific strains of live microorganisms which, when administered in appropriate amount, confer health benefits. It has to be highlighted that “probiotic” refers only to these certain strains of bacteria, which have already been tested and proven to exert benefits. Plus, saying that a product contains probiotic strains does not correspond to define it as a probiotic food. In order to confirm that, research studies and clinical trials on humans are necessary. The viability of the cells in that specific food and their real ability to confer the sought beneficial effect to the host need to be demonstrated.

Let’s have a look now to what fermented food means.
Fermentation is a process of food preservation, born probably as far back as 7000 BC, during which microorganisms break down molecules like fermentable carbohydrates into end-products such as organic acid, carbon dioxide, and alcohol. Early humans involuntarily welcomed microbes in their foods because of their capacity to make food more digestible, to make it last longer or simply to make it taste better than unfermented foods. Now we know that some fermented foods are also proven to be beneficial. In fact, during this process bacteria can also produce vitamins, minerals and other favourable molecules.

However, not all fermented foods show healthy properties, not all fermented foods contain live bacteria and not all fermented foods contain probiotics.

Let’s consider a practical example: yogurt. Can we consider it as a probiotic food? If we read the food labelling of this product, we will come to know that yogurt is obtained fermenting milk with two types of bacteria: Lactobacillus Acidophilus and Streptococcus Thermophilus.

This information, actually, does not allow us to categorize the product as probiotic.
In fact, as previously mentioned, this property is linked to specific strains. The first name, “Lactobacillus” and “Streptococcus” respectively, refers to the genus of the bacteria, while the second name “Acidophilus” and “Thermophilus”, regards the species of the bacteria. Most of the times, the strain is not mentioned on the food labelling and this is why not all yogurt types are the same: some can be probiotic and some not.

Moreover, as mentioned above, there are some foods which are fermented but do not contain live microbes in the final product. This is the example of bread, chocolate, coffee, tea, wine, vinegar, etc. These foods are produced using microbes during their manufacturing but once the product is ready, bacteria die naturally or they are killed by the use of preservatives, temperature, acids etc.

For all these reasons, we can conclude that not all the fermented foods can be called “functional”.

In summary, fermented and probiotic foods are not synonyms. Fermented food can or cannot be probiotic as well as probiotic foods can or cannot be fermented. It is not too rare nowadays to find in the supermarket probiotic juices, probiotic cereal bars or probiotic dried fruits. These products have not been fermented but just “fortified” adding encapsulated probiotic bacteria in the final product.

References

https://foodinstitute.com/focus/food-in-2020
http://cdrf.org/home/checkoff-investments/usprobiotics/probiotics-basics/

Şanlier, N., Gökcen, B. B., & Sezgin, A. C. (2019). Health benefits of fermented foods. Critical reviews in food science and nutrition, 59(3), 506-527. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28945458)

Fijan, S. (2014). Microorganisms with claimed probiotic properties: an overview of recent literature. International journal of environmental research and public health, 11(5), 4745-4767. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4053917/)

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