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MINI REVIEW article
Front. Food. Sci. Technol.
Sec. Food Biotechnology
Volume 5 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frfst.2025.1542284
This article is part of the Research Topic Enhancing Functional Dairy Foods: Bioactive Compounds in Fermented Matrices View all 3 articles
Conversion of Whey and Other Dairy Waste into Antimicrobial and Immunoregulatory Compounds by Fermentation
Provisionally accepted- Dairy and Functional Foods Research Unit, Eastern Regional Research Center, Agricultural Research Service (USDA), Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania, United States
Fermentation by lactic acid bacteria has been used for millennia to preserve food and make it more palatable. These microorganisms may also generate bioactive compounds with the potential to serve as components in active edible food packaging or as alternative therapeutics. Dairy waste products, especially whey, provide a substrate for growth of these bacteria, and can be incorporated into the formulations of edible food packaging. This minireview deals with the use of dairy waste to grow lactic acid bacteria to produce bioactive compounds, specifically antimicrobial peptides and immunoregulatory molecules, and their potential use in food and therapeutic applications.
Keywords: Dairy, Waste Products, Lactic acid bacteria, Fermentation, whey, upcycling, bacteriocin, immune response
Received: 09 Dec 2024; Accepted: 20 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Tunick, Renye and Garcia. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Michael Tunick, Dairy and Functional Foods Research Unit, Eastern Regional Research Center, Agricultural Research Service (USDA), Wyndmoor, 19038, Pennsylvania, United States
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.