Probiotic and paraprobiotic potential of Bacillus coagulans: Impact of processing and storage on viability and resistance in the gastrointestinal tract

Abstract

Probiotic microorganisms of the genus Bacillus spp. are attractive due to their inherent stability of spore-forming bacteria. Among them, Bacillus coagulans has demonstrated great prospects as a probiotic for food production. This review explores the impacts of the processing and storage on the viability of B. coagulans and how this influences its applicability on different food matrices. In addition, the resistance to the gastrointestinal tract, which is clearly a crucial factor to probiotics, is approached. In parallel, the paraprobiotic potential of B. coagulans is also discussed. Studies evidenced a great survival range of this microorganism during different processing/storage conditions: B. coagulans maintains its availability during thermal and acidic conditions and also can survive in foods with intermediate water activity. Vegetative and sporulated cells of B. coagulans showed great resistance to in vitro simulations of gastrointestinal tract, surviving adverse conditions of pH, osmotic concentration, and temperature. These results suggest that B. coagulans has the potential to be used in the production of different probiotic food matrices.