Synbiotics: A culinary Art to Creative Health Foods

Fermentation has always remained the most reliable technique to develop new exotic health foods. The probiotic drinks has been in the market for over a decade and are well known for their health promoting functionalities. Recently, the importance of prebiotic factors like xylobiose, inulin, lactulose etc. in promoting the growth of probiotic microorganisms inside the colon has been emphasized and has become an emerging area of research. The new approach in this area is the development of synbiotic drinks which are known to impart the beneficial effects of both probiotics and prebiotics. Synbiotics have more unique and promising ability to impart health benefits over the probiotics. Many traditional foods like kanji, lugri, pozol, sufu, bushera etc. are known to possess synbiotic behavior. There is a tremendous scope to develop new exotic synbiotic foods by combining the traditional knowledge and modern science. The relevant issues with respect to the synbiotics foods have been reviewed here.