ABSTRACT
Many fermented foods are produced throughout the world. Fermentation is a process that transforms the starting material into a product that may have enhanced nutritional and/or organoleptic characteristics. With the advent of probiotics, many researchers have analyzed the microflora in traditional fermented foods in attempts to find foods that contain bacteria that may be beneficial to health, metabolism, and disease resistance. In a few cases, an opposite approach has been taken. Based on studies testing individual bacteria in animals and humans, new products have been developed that include these bacteria, thereby creating new probiotic foods. (See Chapter 6 on
Lactobacillus casei
strain Shirota [LcS] for such an example.) Early studies on
Enterococcus faecium
and its effects against diarrhea and more importantly on cholesterol metabolism showed that
E. faecium
might be an ideal candidate to include in a fermented milk probiotic product. Gaio
(which contains both
E. faecium
and
Streptococcus thermophilus
) was developed and is now distributed in at least two European countries. This chapter reviews studies where
E. faecium
and Gaio were tested for their effects on serum cholesterol, diarrhea, and mutagens.
