Probiotics and prebiotics in infant nutrition

Abstract

The human colonic microflora has a central role in health and disease, being unique in its complexity and range of functions. As such, dietary modulation is important for improved gut health, especially during the highly-sensitive stage of infancy. Diet can affect the composition of the gut microflora through the availability of different substrates for bacterial fermentation. Differences in gut microflora composition and incidence of infection exist between breast-fed and formula-fed infants, with the former thought to have improved protection. Historically, this improvement has been believed to be a result of the higher presence of reportedly-beneficial genera such as the bifidobacteria. As such, functional food ingredients such as prebiotics and probiotics could effect a beneficial modification in the composition and activities of gut microflora of infants by increasing positive flora components. The prebiotic approach aims to increase resident bacteria that are considered to be beneficial for human health, e.g. bifidobacteria and lactobacilli, while probiotics advocates the use of the live micro-organisms themselves in the diet. Both approaches have found their way into infant formula feeds and aim to more closely simulate the gut microbiota composition seen during breast-feeding.

Probiotics - What They Are, Their Benefits and Challenges

“…The probiotic should survive the environmental conditions in their target site of action and proliferate in this location (Havenaar & Huis int'Veld, 1992). That is, they should be able to adhere to and colonise the epithelial cell lining to establish themselves in the colon (Guarner & Schaafsma, 1998;Parracho et al, 2007). The ability to adhere to the epithelium secures the strain from being easily flushed out by peristaltic movements (Gupta & Garg, 2009).…”

“…The organism should be able to survive, in particular, the harsh environmental conditions of the stomach and small intestine (e.g. gastric and bile acids, digestive enzymes) (Dunne et al, 2001;Parracho et al, 2007).…”

“…Therefore probiotic containing foods and products need to be of good quality and must have high enough numbers of viable probiotic cells to ensure that consumers get the optimal benefits from the product (Alakomi et al, 2005). Probiotic strains have to be good vehicles for specific target delivery of peptides and recombinant proteins within the human GIT (Dunne et al, 2001;Parracho et al, 2007).…”

Low level of galacto-oligosaccharide in infant formula stimulates growth of intestinal Bifidobacteria and Lactobacilli

“…As a result, manufacturers of formula try to mimic the gastrointestinal flora in breastfed infants by adding probiotics and/or prebiotics such as GOS. Although the addition of probiotics is able to manipulate the infants' microflora towards the breast-fed infants' microflora [17,18] , this concept may be regarded as unphysiological since breast milk itself does not contain bacteria. Prebiotics are, therefore, the first choice.…”

Probiotics - the versatile functional food ingredients

“…The important criteria which are used for selecting probiotic strains includes that the organism should be: nonpathogenic and non-toxic (Singh et al 2011); isolated from the same species as its intended host (Maurya et al 2014); able to survive during transit through the gastrointestinal tract by being acid and bile resistant (Khan and Naz 2013;Maurya et al 2014); able to adhere and colonize the intestinal epithelium which is an important property for successful immune modulation and competitive exclusion of pathogens (Kechagia et al 2013;Maurya et al 2014); able to stabilize the normal intestinal microflora (Parvez et al 2006); able to produce antimicrobial substances like the bacteriocins against the pathogens (Kral et al 2012); having a demonstrated beneficial effect on the host (Fontana et al 2013); durable enough to withstand the duress of commercial manufacturing, processing and distribution (Khan and Naz 2013); and also having good sensory characteristics by not providing unpleasant flavors or textures (Parracho et al 2007;Mitropoulou et al 2013). The essential criteria for the use of probiotics in humans has been listed in Table 2.…”