Author(s)

Emiliano J. Quinto¹, Pilar Jiménez¹, Irma Caro¹, Jesús Tejero¹, Javier Mateo², Tomás Girbés¹

¹Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Faculty of Medicine and CINAD (Centro de Investigación en Nutrición, Alimentación y Dietética; Edificio Lucia), University of Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain.
²Department of Food Hygiene and Technology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of León, León, Spain.

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) play a critical role in food production and health maintenance. There is an increasing interest in these species to reveal the many possible health benefits associated with them. The actions of LAB are species and strain specific, and depend on the amount of bacteria available in the gastrointestinal tract. Consumers are very concerned of chemical preservatives and processed foods. However, products with or processed with LAB are accepted as a natural way to preserve food and promote health. This paper aimed to review the recent data in regard to the role of probiotic LAB in the preservation of foods, in the immunomodulation in the gastrointestinal tract, and in its health benefits

Lactic Acid Bacteria, Probiotic, Gastrointestinal Tract, Health

Quinto, E. , Jiménez, P. , Caro, I. , Tejero, J. , Mateo, J. and Girbés, T. (2014) Probiotic Lactic Acid Bacteria: A Review. Food and Nutrition Sciences, 5, 1765-1775. doi: 10.4236/fns.2014.518190.