Quality and Health Aspects of Dairy Foods as Affected by Probiotic Bacteria and Their Metabolites

With the growing demand for healthy food products, there has been increasing scientific and commercial interests for developing foods that besides providing the nutritive values could also improve the overall health status of the consumer. In this context, the probiotic dairy products are of immense interest to both consumers and researchers who are searching for healthy food products with increased health benefits. Administration of live bacteria especially lactic acid bacteria (LAB) to ferment and non-fermented dairy food products are considered a health-promoting strategy that could bestow health benefits on the consumer. Probiotics are mixture of friendly bacteria capable of maintaining and improving intestinal balance and hence boosting immune system effectiveness. Mounting evidence are present on the role of probiotic strains acting as adjuncts to antibiotic therapy by reducing adverse effects, improving antibacterial function and enhancing mucosal immunity. Apart from probiotic bacteria, their nonviable counterparts (paraprobiotics) and the metabolites produced by probiotic bacteria (postbiotic metabolites) are also known to provide physiological health benefits to the consumers, and demonstrate therapeutic actions that are comparable to the actions of probiotics. In this review these concepts will be approached, as well as their potential applications in dairy products, highlighting the functional and technological advantages compared to the use of probiotics.