A group of researchers from IRTA (Department of Agriculture - Government of Catalonia), within the framework of the INIA (the Spanish National Institute for Agriculture and Food Research and Technology) project "Functional and safe fermented/cured meat products. Novel route for probiotic intake", led by Dr Margarita Garriga, have isolated several potentially probiotic strains of lactic acid bacteria from the feces of healthy neonates.

The functional properties, the ability to survive passage through the gastrointestinal tract, and the antagonistic activity towards potential pathogens of these strains were assessed after their purification and culture. Furthermore, their technological capacity to correctly ferment a type of sausage (fuet) was also analyzed.

Among all the studied strains, Lactobacillus rhamnosus CTC1679 was chosen, which, when used as a starter culture, has allowed producing a potentially probiotic low-sodium and low-fat fuet, with sensory characteristics similar to those of the traditional product.

The recommended daily dose of probiotics would be reached with the intake of 10g of the developed product. This amount is compatible with a healthy and balanced diet.

The cold meat developed by IRTA´s researchers, which includes safe probiotic bacterium, is a step forward for the meat sector regarding innovation in the field of raw cured products.

At present, probiotics are mostly consumed through daily products. This new type of products would allow individuals that do not consume dairy products including these beneficial bacteria to their diet.

These studies have been recently (2014) published in Food Microbiology and Meat Science.

Further intervention studies on the effect of these probiotics in humans have to be carried out.

References:

Raquel Rubio, Anna Jofré, Belén Martín, Teresa Aymerich, Margarita Garriga (2014) Characterization of lactic acid bacteria isolated from infant faeces as potential probiotic starter cultures for fermented sausages. Food Microbiology 38:303-311 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0740002013001548

Raquel Rubio, Anna Jofré, Teresa Aymerich, Maria Dolors Guàrdia, Margarita Garriga (2014) Nutritionally enhanced fermented sausages as a vehicle for potential probiotic lactobacilli delivery. Meat Science 96:937-942 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0309174013005263