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Lactic fermentation as a tool for improving the nutritional quality of cereal and legume proteins.
M. GOBBETTI (1). (1) University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, , Italy

Lactic fermentation is one of the oldest examples of biotechnology for improving the sensory, shelf life and, especially, nutritional features of raw food matrices. Selected lactic acid bacteria, depending on the physical-chemical composition of the substrate, are considered as useful starters and the sourdough fermentation is defined as a suitable process. Regarding cereal matrices, some of the most recent results showed that sourdough fermentation could be successfully used either to moderately decrease the concentration of gluten to address the so called Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity (NCGS) or to fully eliminate gluten from cereals to manage with the Celiac Disease (CD). Sourdough fermentation also favored the fortification of cereal based foods with functional peptides having antihypertensive, antioxidant and antimicrobial features. Under almost the same conditions, cereal products could be enriched of γ-amino butyric acid (GABA). Recently, sourdough fermentation with selected lactic acid bacteria was also proven to increase the in vitro protein digestibility of a number of legume species, together with other relevant functional features (e.g., decrease of the content of anti-nutritional factors). When subjected to lactic fermentation, legume substrates showed an increase of the inherent suitability to release anti-tumoral lunasin-like peptides.

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