MICROBIAL TECHNOLOGIES IN THE PRODUCTION OF LOW-LACTOSE DAIRY FOODS

Low-lactose milk products with 70% or more of the lactose hydrolysed b y food grade p-galactosidase enzymes of yeasts or fungi have become wi dely accepted for alleviating the symptoms of lactose maldigestion. Th is condition limits the intake of nutritious dairy foods by large segm ents of the world's population. Alternative approaches recently propos ed for dealing with lactose maldigestion include the supplementation o f milk with dormant dairy cultures, treatment of milk with sonicated o r permeabilized cultures as food-grade sources of beta-galactosidase a nd the use of cold-active enzymes to hydrolyse lactose in milk under r efrigerated storage conditions.