Functional foods and feeds: Probiotics, prebiotics, and synbiotics

Foods, beyond their nutritional value, are increasingly perceived in connection with disease prevention and physical and mental well-being. Functional foods are defined in basic terms as "foods that may provide health benefits beyond basic nutrition." An underlying premise is that functional foods are foods, not medicine. Although primarily a problem of developed societies, health problems associated with modern eating habits are having a profound impact on developing countries as well, where deleterious effects are likely to be more evident because of economic constraints. Functional foods and health eating habits are then responses to the global change in lifestyle. The market for functional foods has been steadily growing in the last decades, representing both an opportunity and a challenge to food producers willing to meet such demand and conquer consumer acceptance. Probiotics and prebiotics are outstanding components of functional foods whose economic and social impact, physiological effects, and technological development are the core subject of this chapter.