Fermentation milk-based foods

Uses of lactose production by appHcation include baby and infant formulations (30%), human food (30%), pharmaceuticals (25%), and fermentation and animal feed (15%) (39). It is used as a diluent in tablets and capsules to correct the balance between carbohydrate and proteins in cow-milk-based breast milk replacers, and to increase osmotic property or viscosity without adding excessive sweetness. It has also been used as a carrier for flavorings. 

R. Zaydan, M. Dion and M. Boujtita, Development of a new method, based on a bioreactor coupled with an L-lactate biosensor, toward the determination of a nonspecific inhibition of L-lactic acid production during milk fermentation, J. Agric. Food Chem., 52(1) (2004) 8-14. 

In the current industrial process, nisin is manufactured by fermentation of L. lactis subsp. lactis in a milk-based medium. Biosynthesis of nisin is coupled with the growth of lactic acid bacteria and the production of a significant amount of lactic acid (7). Lactic acid is an important chemical for food processing. It can also be used as a raw material in the production of the biodegradable polymer poly(lactic) acid (12). Unfortunately, lactic acid is not recovered in the current nisin process. 

Blue cheese flavors have been prepared via submerged culture fermentations in a sterile milk-based medium using Penicillium rogueforti(63). The fermentations are conducted under pressure with low aeration rates with optimal flavor production occurring from 24-72 hours. Similarly, Kosikowski and Jolly(64) prepared blue cheese flavors from the fermentation of mixtures of whey, food fat, salt and water by P roqueforti. Dwivedi and Kinsella(65) developed a continuous submerged fermentation of P. roqueforti for production of blue cheese flavor. 

The lactic acid accumulated during the production of fermented milks and cheeses, besides the related pH drop, represents the key component for the antimicrobial effect of dairy LAB against many spoilage and/or pathogenic bacteria. On the other hand, in some dairy products, and mainly in vegetable-based fermented foods or in intermediate food products such as sourdough, acetic acid released by facultatively or obli-gately heterofermentative LAB can account for an additive preservative effect related to fermentation. 

Lactic acid bacteria based fermented products have a long reputation for being positively beneficial to humans, particularly linked with fermented milk such as nutritional improvement of foods, inhibition of enteric pathogens, hypocholestaemic action, anticancer activity, and stimulation of the immune system (Adams and Moss 1995). Similarly, phenolic phytochemicals have potential for regulation and chemopre-vention of oxidative and infectious diseases (Shetty 1999). 

Furosine, a marker of the Maillard reaction product, is a valuable indicator of food protein quality. It is a marker for thermal treatment in foodstuffs and is directly related to the loss of lysine availability. IPC was employed to determine furosine content in beverages based on soy milk and cow milk supplemented with soy isoflavones [39]. Furosine was also analyzed in 60 commercial breakfast cereals to assess their protein nutritional values. The higher the protein content in the formulation, the higher the furosine levels [40]. A simple IPC technique that uses 1-octanesulfonic acid as the IPR allowed the selective determination of histamine levels in fermented food [41]. 

Although already discovered in 1780 by the Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele,who isolated the lactic acid from sour milk, lactic acid has attracted more recently a great deal of attention due to its widespread applications, mainly in food, chemical, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical industries. Also, it has a great potential for the production of biodegradable and biocompatible polylactic acid (PLA) and, besides 3-hydroxypropionic acid, as an intermediate for sugar-based acrylic acid. Lactic acid production can be achieved either by chemical synthesis routes or by fermentative production (lactic acid fermentation). By the chemical synthesis route, a racemic mixture of DL-lactic acid is usually... 

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