The Many Benefits of Lactic Acid Bacteria

Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) are a heterologous group of microorganisms that have been isolated from numerous ecological niches, including fermented foods, plants, and the gastrointestinal tract of animals. Because of their "generally regarded as safe" status (GRAS), there has been great interest in using these microorganisms in food production, as probiotic microorganisms or as biotechnological tools. This book describes some of the many benefits of LAB including i) their use in foods where advances in the fight against spoilage and pathogenic microorganisms in foods, their thermotolerance, their microencapsulation, and responses to osmotic challenges will be discussed; ii) their capacity to produce beneficial compounds including bioactive peptides, biosurfactants, gamma-aminobutyric acid, and antimicrobial products such as organic acids, hydrogen peroxide, bacteriocins, and peptidoglycan hydrolases; and iii) their effect on health and other applications such as their use as a DNA vaccine delivery system, bile-salt hydrolase, and exopolysaccharides production as well as the use of spore forming LAB. This new book is a compilation of topics that have been written by experts from all over the world (Argentina, Brazil, Greece, Mexico, and Thailand) who work in different research settings offering varying viewpoints on the most up-to-date information currently available on the uses and many benefits of Lactic Acid Bacteria.