Effect of sub-lethal high pressure homogenization treatments on probiotic LAB cell responses.

TABANELLI, G.; PATRIGNANI, F; MONTANARI C; VINDEROLA G; REINHEIMER, J.; LANCIOTTI, R.

Copenhagen

Simposio; 22nd International ICFMH Symposium, Food Micro 2010.; 2010

High pressure homogenization (HPH) is one of the most promising technology for microbial decontamination (1) and seems to have a great potential to improve some Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) functional properties when applied at sub-lethal levels. Preliminary researches documented that HPH could increase cells technological and probiotic properties, although the response is strain-dependent (2; 3) Considering that some probiotic properties are related to cell wall, also principal target of High Pressure Homogenization (HPH), the aim of this experimental work was to evaluate the effect of a sub-lethal HPH treatment on bacterial cell surface hydrophobicity and aggregation properties of some functional strains. Moreover, membrane fatty acid (FA) composition and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyses of treated and untreated strains were performed in order to study the effect of HPH on cell responses of considered strains.