Fermenting a revolution: How research fueled the probiotic phenomenon
By Joseph O’Donnell
Another year and once again probiotics are topping every- one’s list as what’s hot in food development. Those trendy little bugs are suddenly the darlings of food developers and consumers looking to fine-tune their digestive system – a thought that would have been taboo to voice a decade ago. Fermented dairy foods like yogurt, kefir and cheeses packed with probiotic strains touting immunity and digestive health benefits are crowding the dairy aisle in every flavor and style possible. However, the science behind probiotics has taken centuries to develop.
Well before recorded history, humans caught on to the enormous nourishing advantages of milk. In the early days, the only downside to this food source was rapid spoilage. Fermentation brought a solution. The discovery of fermentation led to the development of an entirely new source of food as the process was refined and new products were developed, diets expanded and potential starvation turned to survival.
Fast-forwarding to modern times, dairy scientists in the 1970s, including Drs. Khem Shahani, Bill Sandine and Larry McKay, kept the field of study perking along with significant discoveries. More importantly, they set the stage enabling the next generation of researchers to make tremendous breakthroughs in scientific technology, especially through studies of bacterial DNA.
The 1980s put a spotlight firmly on the concept of probiotics and the role dairy products played in delivering these beneficial cultures. At the time, science was well aware of the fact that bacteria “owned” our large intestines (colon). While science moved forward with understanding how to make better cheese or yogurt, researchers were laying the groundwork for understanding the physiological benefit these dairy-associated bacteria might have for consumers.
Support for probiotic research was steady in the 1980s, with most of the microbiological attention focused on starter cultures. The National Dairy Council funded clinical studies by Gorbach and Goldin that supported the physiological benefits of dairy probiotics. Their findings attracted attention from other researchers and companies, yet the cultures were too unstable and the market for fermented dairy products in the United States was slow to develop, compared with what was happening in Europe and Asia.
A major breakthrough came with the ability to genetically sequence the DNA of milk-associated bacteria. A group of lactic acid microbiologists worked with the Joint Genome Institute to sequence 11 fermentative bacteria, opening the door to truly understanding what these bugs can do.
In the late 1980s and early ‘90s, microbiologist Todd Klaenhammer became a leader in the field. Klaenhammer, who took his Ph.D. under Larry McKay, trained a number of leading dairy microbiologists and is the only dairy food scientist to become a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
At the turn of the 21st century, clinical studies using dairy lactics became more feasible in universities, and big companies were investing in their own independent research. Dannon took the first step and introduced first Actimel and then Activia to the United States. Activia became one of the most successful new product launches ever. Other companies followed suit and the U.S. market finally materialized.
With financial support from CDRF, in 2000 leading scientists in the probiotics field formed the International Scientific Association of Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP) to establish a scientific basis for the benefits of probiotics. Today, marketers are positioning their products according to ISAPP’s Guidelines for Consumers.
And what of the role that milk plays in the support of probiotics? The association has always been there but what about the scientific support? Again, breakthrough technology produced the analytical capability of measuring the carbohydrates in milk. What scientists found was great diversity of oligosaccharides in milk. A team from UC Davis that included Bruce German, David Mills and Carlito Lebrilla started looking very seriously at how oligosaccharides from human milk affected the growth of probiotics. These results have been published and represent the bedrock science connecting milk to probiotic activity. This work attracted other scientists extending into immunology, appetite control and other areas. It also moved from human oligosaccharides to the large-scale availability of bovine milk.
This recent work, to me, will stand as the first scientifically proven evidence of the role that milk plays in the support of probiotic activity. Exactly what that probiotic activity means is under intense investigation by researchers around the world. Clearly, probiotics will find a role in basic health throughout the stages of life, as well as an eventual role in the treatment of various maladies. No doubt, other components of milk will be proven to support probiotics, giving dairy a continuing role in bringing the benefits of probiotics to consumers.
