Bifidobacterium spp. as functional foods: A review of current status, challenges, and strategies

Abstract

Members of Bifidobacterium are among the first microbes to colonize the human intestine naturally, their abundance and diversity in the colon are closely related to host health. Recently, the gut microbiota has been gradually proven to be crucial mediators of various metabolic processes between the external environment and the host. Therefore, the health-promoting benefits of Bifidobacterium spp. and their applications in food have gradually been widely concerned. The main purpose of this review is to comprehensively introduce general features, colonization methods, and safety of Bifidobacterium spp. in the human gut, highlighting its health benefits and industrial applications. On this basis, the existing limitations and scope for future research are also discussed. Bifidobacteria have beneficial effects on the host’s digestive system, immune system, and nervous system. However, the first prerequisite for functioning is to have enough live bacteria before consumption and successfully colonize the colon after ingestion. At present, strain breeding, optimization (e.g., selecting acid and bile resistant strains, adaptive evolution, high cell density culture), and external protection technology (e.g., microencapsulation and protectants) are the main strategies to address these challenges in food application.

Keywords:

• adaptive evolution
• Bifidobacterium spp.
• health benefits
• industrial application
• microencapsulation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Guangdong Major Project of Basic and Applied Basic Research (No. 2020B0301030005), the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (No. 2021A1515010765), the Key-Area Research and Development Program of Guangdong Province (No. 2020B020226007), and the Collaborative Innovation Center for Sports of Guangdong Province (No. 2019B110210004).