Title : Metamorphosis of probiotics from the first generation to the fourth generation in the food industry
Abstract:
A recent review of statistics shows that out of the amount of money that is happening in the world for probiotics, in 2023 it is estimated that we will have a turnover of about twenty billion dollars for probiotic products. We see the same phenomenon in scientific discussions. Research from 1995 onwards reveals the fact that probiotics have emerged as a new phenomenon in scientific research and are increasing day by day. This shows that both in research and in operational and financial aspects, the phenomenon of probiotics has occupied a wide space of food science and health and is predicted to be one of the most important issues in the food industry in the next few years. On the other hand, there are various challenges in the development of these microorganisms. If we want to draw the metamorphosis of probiotics from birth to today, we come to the following timeline.
In the 1900s and 1965s, efforts began to produce probiotic products, leading to the emergence of the first generation of probiotics.Lyophilized planktonic bacteria were the first generation of probiotics to be used to produce probiotic products. Later, declining probiotic populations in processing and storage, gastrointestinal conditions, and the presence of antibiotics led to the second generation of noon. Lyophilized bacteria were coated with natural or synthetic polymers. But this method also could not solve the problem of sensitivity and vulnerability in the gastrointestinal tract. In order to solve the problems of the second generation, encapsulation emerged as the third generation. This generation included bacteria that were trapped in the polymer by a mechanical or physicochemical process such as extrusion, emulsion, trapping, and spray drying. Despite the numerous studies that have been done on the encapsulation of probiotics, the problem of the survival and complete arrival of the bacteria to the desired location has not yet been understood. Therefore, many efforts are being made today to commercialize the fourth generation of probiotics. Biofilm is the fourth generation of probiotic bacteria, which is known as an innovative protection technique and is only a few years old.
