THE IMPACT OF SELECTED MICROBIAL STARTERS ON THE POLYPHENOLS CONTENT IN FERMENTED VEGETABLE FOODS

Introduction: Many vegetable products are processed through fermentation. This strategy can improve the funtionality of nutrients, favoring the release of polyphenols important compounds for their health benefits, also for novel food manufacture. Microbial strains are chosen for their ability to transform vegetable raw materials into edible foods, allowing also the release of bioactive compounds, expecially polyphenols 1,2,3. Material & Methods: Feedstocks (black kale, artichokes, table olives, strawberry tree fruits, onion skins, seaweeds, etc.) are pretreated and characterized for their composition and phenolic content/profile. Microrganisms are selected for their safety and thecnological aspects. Laboratory-scale fermentation experiments are set up for optimal operational conditions. Results: In all tested vegetable samples, the efficacy of the optimized fermentation process are verified in terms of metabolic-associated traits and in the improvement of some nutritional aspects, such as polyphenols and antioxidant activity. Conclusion: The microbial treatment of vegetable materials driven by selected Lactic Acid Bacteria and yeast strains, effective to produce foods for human consumption, can be considered as a valid strategy for enhancing the release of polyphenols by a sustainable and low-cost route.