Lactic acid fermentation as a tool for increasing the folate content of foods

Abstract

Folate is an essential micronutrient involved in numerous vital biological reactions. The dietary consumption of naturally occurring vitamin B9 is often inadequate in many countries, and supplementation or fortification programs (using synthetic folic acid) are implemented to alleviate folate deficiency. Other food-based alternatives are possible, such as the use of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) to synthesize folate during fermentation. Many studies have been conducted on this topic, and promising results were reported for some fermented dairy products. However, in other studies, folate consumption by LAB or rather low folate production were observed, resulting in fermented foods that may not significantly contribute to the recommended B9 intake. In addition, the optimum conditions for folate biosynthesis by LAB are still not clear. The aim of this review was thus to (i) clarify the ability of LAB to produce folate in food products, (ii) check if the production of folate by LAB in various fermented foods is sufficient to meet human vitamin B9 requirements and (iii) suggest ways to optimize folate production by LAB in fermented food products.

Fermented Foods as a Dietary Source of Live Organisms

“…Fermented foods may also contain vitamins and other bioactive molecules produced in situ from microbial metabolism that are not present in the original food. Recently, Saubade et al (2017) noted that folic acid deficiency is a global health problem and suggested that fermented foods could be a food-based alternative for delivering folic acid to at-risk populations. Although some LAB are able to produce modest levels of folate (Leblanc et al, 2011), amounts produced in foods may be too low to be reach required levels (Saubade et al, 2017).…”

“…Recently, Saubade et al (2017) noted that folic acid deficiency is a global health problem and suggested that fermented foods could be a food-based alternative for delivering folic acid to at-risk populations. Although some LAB are able to produce modest levels of folate (Leblanc et al, 2011), amounts produced in foods may be too low to be reach required levels (Saubade et al, 2017). Thus, selection of over-producing strains, as well as combining strains with non-LAB may be necessary to enhance production of this vitamin in foods.…”

Engineering Lactococcus lactis for Increased Vitamin K2 Production

“…An extensive set of genetic tools has been developed for LABs over the years and this can enable efficient metabolic engineering of industrially important strains. Efforts have been made to enhance production of vitamins like riboflavin (Burgess et al, 2004;Chen et al, 2017;Juarez Del Valle et al, 2017), folate (Albuquerque et al, 2017;Saubade et al, 2017;Meucci et al, 2018) and cobalamin (Bhushan et al, 2017;Li et al, 2017) in LAB and thereby increase the functional value of fermented food, but until very recently there were no reports on optimization of dairy production or metabolic engineering of LAB strains to achieve higher menaquinone levels. Several genomes of the dominating vitamin K2 producing LAB, L. lactis have been sequenced, and putative genes encoding the enzymes for the individual steps of menaquinone biosynthesis annotated (Wegmann et al, 2007).…”

Fermentação de Petit Suisse obtido com retenção de soro e adição de lactase e redução da adição de açúcares versus à formulação tradicional

“…As consequências da fermentação incluem a mudança na microes trutura das proteínas do leite, caracterizam a textura e o sabor de lácteos fermentados e impactam favoravelmente nos atributos nutricionais dos produtos (SAUBADE et al, 2017).…”