Bioactive compounds produced by probiotics in food products

Probiotics and associated health benefits emerged as an area of increasing interest in the past few decades. Probiotics confer their beneficial health effects by different mechanisms of action such as preventing pathogen adhesion or colonization, the production of metabolites, and modulation of the immune system by production of immunoglobulins antibodies. The most frequently used probiotics belong to the genera Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus. This review focuses on the health benefits of different bioactive compounds produced by probiotics, their mode of action and applications in food. However, viability of the microbial cells during processing, packaging, and storage of the food should be maintained in the foods supplemented with probiotic microorganisms.