No abstract

At present, consumers are looking for more natural foods so as to improve health through their active compounds. Within this context, soybean is an excellent substrate due to its beneficial effects on consumers' health. Moreover, lactic cultures are widely used in the food industry to improve the technological, nutritional and functional characteristics of fermented foods. It is interesting to find new matrices in which to transport these starter cultures (potentially probiotic microorganisms). The aim of this research was to obtain a solid state fermentation system from soybean to analyze the behavior of selected lactobacilli and bifidobacteria, with the potential to develop a functional vegetarian food to serve as carrier for the microorganisms. A soybean solid substrate system was optimized by selecting the relationship of the main processing parameters. Homogeneous soybean pastes with different moisture content (60-80%) were obtained and used as substrate and support for solid substrate fermentation. Moisture, inoculum size and temperature were optimized: 80%, 4%, 37°C, respectively. L. rhamnosus CRL 981 was chosen as the best starter to use in this kind of fermentation, showing high acidification and cell counts at 24h of fermentation and increased specific growth rate in tested soybean pastes. It was demonstrated that the selected soybean paste could be used as a carrier of these microorganisms having probiotic potential for the production of vegetarian foods. Moreover, these microorganisms are able to modify the substrate to enhance their nutritional and functional characteristics, which would change the soybean into a more attractive product for consumers.

The suitabllity 01 disc fermenter for efficient production of conidiospores by Trichoderma harzianum is limited to a workmg capacity of 0.6 1 agar medium due to large decrease in spore production per cm* of the culture surface area with further increase m Ihc capacity. In contrast, Zymoris, a large scale solid state fermenter designed at ORSTOM, France and USC of men sohd support for absorbing nutrients offer many advantages for production of conidmsporcs m quantity sufflclem enough to inoculate pilot and larger fermenters. Five times higher producuon of comdiosporcs in Zymotis, as compared to the agar methum in flask, constitutes a success in the development of large scale inoculum.

Food allergies represent a serious problem affecting human health and soy proteins rank among the most allergenic proteins from food origin. The proteolytic enzymes produced by lactic acid bacteria (LAB) can hydrolyse the major allergens present in soybean, reducing their immunoreactivity. Many studies have reported the ability of LAB to ferment soy-based products; while the majority of them focus on the improvement of the sensory characteristics and functionality of soy proteins, a lack of information about the role of lactic fermentation in the reduction of immunoreactivity of these proteins exists. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the capability of the proteolytic strain Enterococcus faecalis VB43 to hydrolyse the main allergenic proteins present in soymilk and to determine the immunoreactivity of the obtained hydrolysates. Sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) results of fermented soymilk demonstrated complete hydrolysis of the β-subunit from β-conglycinin and the acidic polypeptide from glycinin. Reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) analysis of the peptides released after hydrolysis revealed the appearance of new peptides and the disappearance of non-hydrolysed proteins, indicating extensive hydrolysis of the substrate. Results from competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) tests clearly indicated a reduction in the immunoreactivity (more than one logarithmic unit) in the fermented sample as compared to the non-fermented control. Our results suggest that the soymilk fermented by E. faecalis VB43 may induce lower allergic responses in sensitive individuals. The strain E. faecalis VB43 may be considered as an excellent candidate to efficiently reduce the immunoreactivity of soymilk proteins.