The concept of "Functional Food" arises in developed countries in which consumers demand foods that, in addition to their nutritional qualities, promote better health and well-being or reduce the risk of disease. In the context of populations suffering from chronic nutritional deficiencies, such as certain groups of children from disadvantaged social strata, the development of a functional food will, on the one hand, alleviate the lack of nutrients if the native raw material selected is rich in macro- and micro-nutrients and, on the other hand, to improve the state of health by including beneficial ingredients. The objective to the ProInfant project is to develop vegetable-based probiotic foods to alleviate chronic nutritional deficiencies and health problems in disadvantaged Iberoamerican children populations. To achieve this, 73 researchers, organized in 9 groups from 7 Iberoamerican countries (Argentina, Colombia, España, Guatemala, México, Nicaragua and Perú) together with 2 Italian associated groups, will work in the ProInfant project funded by CYTED organization (Ciencia y Tecnología para el Desarrollo de Iberoamerica). Two of the 9 groups are Spanish: the Coordinator group (CSIC: IPLA, CIAL and CIB) and the A group (UV and UCM). Traditional fermented foods from the Latin America will be used to search for autochthonous lactic acid bacteria whose technological, nutritional, safe and probiotic characteristics will be characterized: the ability to produce vitamins, antimicrobial compounds and / or to antagonize human pathogens. A vegetable-based probiotic food will be designed for malnourished child populations; its functionality will be analyzed in vitro, in vivo and through an intervention study with children in Guatemala. ProInfant also focuses on training qualified human resources allowing that each country can develop safe and high nutritional value probiotic foods, using native bacteria and plants.

Trabajo presentado en el IX Workshop de la Sociedad Española de Probióticos y Prebióticos (SEPyP), celebrado en Zaragoza (España) el 15 y 16 de febrero de 2018

Peer reviewed