ABSTRACT
A number of dairy products have evolved over the past decades including cultured buttermilk, sour cream, yoghurt, ymer, taetmojolk, folkjolk, dahi, zabadi, kefi r, kumys, and cheeses such as Cheddar cheese and cottage cheese. These products use a number of organisms including Lactococcuslactis ssp. lactis, L. lactis ssp. cremoris, Lc. lactis ssp. lactis biovar. diacetylactis, Leuc. mesenteroides ssp. cremoris, Lactobacillus delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus, and Streptococcus thermophilus are used for making various dairy products. However, the microorganisms used for making these dairy foods do not survive in the gastrointestinal tract and do not provide probiotic effects. Hence, the recent trend is to add probiotic bacteria including Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bifi dobacterium spp., L. casei, Lb. casei (strain Shirota), L. reuteri, and L. rhamnosus GG to dairy foods. Probiotic organisms are incorporated in yogurt, sour cream, milk powder, buttermilk and frozen fermented desserts. Cheddar cheese, cottage cheese, Mozzarella cheese and cheese based spreads are relatively new products in which probiotic organisms are incorporated. Yet, a more recent trend has been to use starter bacteria or probiotic bacteria to release bioactive peptides from milk proteins in probiotic products for additional health benefi ts. Examples of such products include Calpis and Evolus. Both products contain bioactive peptides such as angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory peptides including isoleucineproline-proline (IPP) or valine-proline-proline (VPP) for lowering blood pressure. A number of dairy based functional foods containing bioactive peptides have already been commercialized.
