432 Chapter 24
Bioactive peptides generated from food
proteins, such as milk and soy proteins, have
been utilized for functional ingredients. For
example, several food products containing
ACE inhibitory peptides have been marketed
for hypertensives (Arihara 2006b ). Although
bioactive peptides have not yet been utilized
in the meat industry, such peptides are prom-
ising candidates for ingredients of functional
meat products. Also, bioactive peptides gen-
erated from meat proteins could be devel-
oped as novel functional food ingredients.
Functional Fermented
Meat Products
Rediscovery of traditional fermented meat
products as functional foods is an interesting
direction. In the dairy industry, traditional
fermented dairy products have been redis-
covered and reborn as functional foods
(Farnworth 2003 ). Recently, Ansorena and
Astiasar á n (2007) described the possibilities
of development of novel healthier dry -
fermented sausages that could minimize the
negative features of meat. For producing
such dry - fermented sausages, they mentioned
the following items: (1) modifi cation of
mineral content, (2) fat modifi cations, (3)
incorporation of fi ber into formulation, and
(4) utilization of probiotic bacteria. This
section focuses on the utilization of probiotic
bacteria for the development of functional
meat products. Along with probiotics,
prebiotics and synbiotics will be discussed
here.
Probiotics
Probiotics is defi ned as “ live microorganisms
which, when administered in adequate
amounts (as part of food), confer a health
benefi t on the host ” (Stanton et al. 2003 ).
Thus, probiotic foods are regarded as
functional, if they have been satisfactorily
demonstrated to benefi cially affect target
physiological functions in our body, beyond
adequate nutritional effects, in a way that is
relevant to either an improved state of health
and well - being or a reduction of the risk of
disease.
Probiotic bacteria, mainly intestinal
Lactobacillus and Bifi dobacterium , show
various physiological functions, such as
modulation of intestinal fl ora, prevention of
diarrhea, improvement of constipation, low-
ering faucal enzyme activities, lowering
blood cholesterol level, modulation of
immune responses, prevention of food aller-
gies, prevention of cancer, and adjuvant in
Helicobacter pylori treatment (Stanton et al.
2003 ; Agrawal 2005 ). Desirable properties of
probiotic strains (Brassart and Schiffrin
2000 ) are:- human origin
- resistance to acid and bile toxicity
- adherence to human intestinal cells
- colonization of the human gut
- antagonism against pathogenic bacteria
- production of antimicrobial substances
- immune modulation properties
- history of safe use in humans
Probiotics and Meat Fermentation
Although the concept of probiotics has not
been well recognized in the meat industry,
the possibility of probiotic meat products has
been discussed in recent years (Hammes
et al. 2003 ; Ty ö pp ö nen et al. 2003 ; Arihara
2004, 2006b ; Kr ö ckel 2006 ; Ammor and
Mayo 2007 ; Ansorena and Astiasar á n 2007 ;
Cocconcelli and Fontana 2008 ; De Vuyst
et al. 2008 ; Leroy et al. 2008 ). Target meat
products with probiotic bacteria would be
mainly dry sausages, since they are processed
without heat treatment. Although the market
for probiotic meat products is still very
limited, some probiotic meat products have
been marketed in Germany and Japan
(Arihara 2006b ). A German producer devel-