Significance and Impact of the Study: The study showed that the growth of Lactobacillus reuteri strains was inhibited in the presence of stevia sweeteners stevioside and rebaudioside A. Probiotics, for example Lact. reuteri strains, are often used as functional additives in health foods and are an important natural inhabitant of the human gastrointestinal tract. Stevia glycosides application in food is increasing; yet, there are no data about the influence of stevia glycosides on Lact. reuteri growth and very few data on growth of other lactobacilli, either in probiotic foods or in the gastrointestinal tract. This research shows that it is necessary to evaluate the influence of stevia glycosides on other groups of micro-organisms in further research. AbstractUse of stevia-derived sweeteners was recently officially approved by the European Commission, and their application in the food industry has increased, especially in functional foods. However, there are scarce data about the influence of stevia on probiotic bacteria, which are important both as an inhabitant of the human gut and as a functional food additive. Taking into consideration the broad application of Lactobacillus reuteri in functional foods, the aim of the research was to evaluate the influence of stevia glycosides on its growth. Six Lact. reuteri strains were tested for their ability to grow in the presence of stevioside and rebaudioside A (0Á2-2Á6 g l À1 ). The effect of stevia glycosides on biomass concentration, cell count, pH and lactic and acetic acid synthesis was analysed. Both glycosides impaired the growth of analysed strains. However, the inhibitory effect was strain specific, and the concentration-dependent effect was not observed for all parameters. The most pronounced concentration-dependent effect was on lactic and acetic acid production. Taking into account the observed strain-specific inhibitory effect of stevia glycosides, it could be suggested to evaluate the influence of them on each strain employed before their simultaneous application in functional foods.

Consumption of kombucha fermented tea (KT) has always been associated with different health benefits. Many personal experiences and testimonials of KT drinkers are available throughout the world on the ability of KT to protect against a vast number of metabolic and infectious diseases, but very little scientific evidence is available that validates the beneficial effects of KT. The aim of this review is to give an overview of the recent studies in search of experimental confirmation of the numerous KT health-promoting aspects cited previously. Analysis of the literature data is carried out in correspondence to the recent concepts of health protection's requirements. Attention is given to the active compounds in KT, responsible for the particular effect, and to the mechanisms of their actions. It is shown that KT can efficiently act in health prophylaxis and recovery due to four main properties: detoxification, antioxidation, energizing potencies, and promotion of depressed immunity. The recent experimental studies on the consumption of KT suggest that it is suitable for prevention against broad-spectrum metabolic and infective disorders. This makes KT attractive as a fermented functional beverage for health prophylaxis.

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Fish is a well-known source of proteins, minerals, fat-soluble vitamins, antioxidants and other bio-active ingredients. Fish and its processing by-products are relatively cheap raw materials however still rarely are used to create food products with increased nutritive value, functional foods or feed supplements. Application of certain strains of probiotic bifidobacteria for fermentation of non-dairy substrates is a great challenge for industry-targeted research and industry with further offering to the market of functional food products. Our study is the first report on application of bifidobacteria for fermentation of fish. It was shown that a new fish-based functional food product can be obtained after fermentation of Baltic herring mince, supplemented with carbohydrates and NaCl, with a single-strain probiotic culture Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis Bb12. Evaluation of FT-IR spectroscopy data indicated changes of proteins and the composition of total carbohydrates in fermented Baltic herring samples compared to the control. Glucose and sucrose ensured quick acidification and the decrease of pH, to achieve the cell count of B. lactis Bb12 up to 10 8 CFU gG 1 , thus meeting requirements of the viable cell-count of probiotic bacteria in functional food products. However the highest cell counts of probiotic bacteria and acidification were reached using fish mince supplemented with sucrose (2%) and NaCl (1%). The obtained fermented baltic herring paste or its concentrate-after freeze-drying, still with high content of viable probiotic cells (10 7 -10 8 CFU gG 1 ), can be used as functional food product as well as food and feed ingredients.