Functional Properties of Microorganisms in Fermented Foods

Dietary carbohydrates may influence the development of type 2 (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes, for example, through effects on blood glucose and insulin concentrations. We examined the relations of baseline intake of carbohydrates, dietary fiber, dietary magnesium, and carbohydrate-rich foods and the glycemic index with incidence of diabetes. This was a prospective cohort study of 35988 older Iowa women initially free of diabetes. During 6 y of follow-up, 1141 incident cases of diabetes were reported. Total grain, whole-grain, total dietary fiber, cereal fiber, and dietary magnesium intakes showed strong inverse associations with incidence of diabetes after adjustment for potential nondietary confounding variables. Multivariate-adjusted relative risks of diabetes were 1.0, 0.99, 0.98, 0.92, and 0.79 (P for trend: 0.0089) across quintiles of whole-grain intake; 1.0, 1.09, 1.00, 0.94, and 0.78 (P for trend: 0.005) across quintiles of total dietary fiber intake; and 1.0, 0.81, 0.82, 0.81, and 0.67 (P for trend: 0.0003) across quintiles of dietary magnesium intake. Intakes of total carbohydrates, refined grains, fruit and vegetables, and soluble fiber and the glycemic index were unrelated to diabetes risk. These data support a protective role for grains (particularly whole grains), cereal fiber, and dietary magnesium in the development of diabetes in older women.

Culturalable and non-culturable microorganisms naturally ferment majority of global fermented foods and beverages. Traditional food fermentation represents an extremely valuable cultural heritage in most regions, and harbors a huge genetic potential of valuable but hitherto undiscovered strains. Holistic approaches for identification and complete profiling of both culturalable and non-culturable microorganisms in global fermented foods are of interest to food microbiologists. The application of culture-independent technique has thrown new light on the diversity of a number of hitherto unknown and non-cultural microorganisms in naturally fermented foods. Functional bacterial groups (“phylotypes”) may be reflected by their mRNA expression in a particular substrate and not by mere DNA-level detection. An attempt has been made to review the microbiology of some fermented foods and alcoholic beverages of the world.

Microbial food cultures have directly or indirectly come under various regulatory frameworks in the course of the last decades. Several of those regulatory frameworks put emphasis on "the history of use", "traditional food", or "general recognition of safety". Authoritative lists of microorganisms with a documented use in food have therefore come into high demand. One such list was published in 2002 as a result of a joint project between the International Dairy Federation (IDF) and the European Food and Feed Cultures Association (EFFCA). The "2002 IDF inventory" has become a de facto reference for food cultures in practical use. However, as the focus mainly was on commercially available dairy cultures, there was an unmet need for a list with a wider scope. We present an updated inventory of microorganisms used in food fermentations covering a wide range of food matrices (dairy, meat, fish, vegetables, legumes, cereals, beverages, and vinegar). We have also reviewed and updated the taxonomy of the microorganisms used in food fermentations in order to bring the taxonomy in agreement with the current standing in nomenclature. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.