Microbial and chemical composition of Cheddar cheese supplemented with prebiotics from pasteurized milk to aging.

Microbial and chemical properties of cheese is crucial in the dairy industry to understand their effects on cheese quality. Microorganisms within this fat, protein, and water matrix are largely responsible for physiochemical characteristics and associated quality. Prebiotics can be used as an energy source for lactic acid bacteria in cheese by altering the microbial community and provide the potential for value-added foods, with a more stable probiotic population. This research focuses on the addition of fructooligosaccharides (FOS) or inulin to the Cheddar cheese-making process to evaluate the effects on microbial and physicochemical composition changes. Laboratory-scale Cheddar cheese produced in 2 replicates was supplemented with 0 (control), 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0% (wt/wt) of FOS or inulin using 18 L of commercially pasteurized milk. A total of 210 samples (15 samples per replicate of each treatment) were collected from cheese-making procedure and aging period. Analysis for each sample were performed for quantitative analysis of chemical and microbial composition. The prevalence of lactic acid bacteria (log cfu/g) in Cheddar cheese supplemented with FOS (6.34 ± 0.11 and 8.99 ± 0.46; ± standard deviation) or inulin (6.02 ± 0.79 and 9.08 ± 1.00) was significantly higher than the control (5.84 ± 0.27 and 8.48 ± 0.06) in whey and curd, respectively. Fructooligosaccharides supplemented cheeses showed similar chemical properties to the control cheese, whereas inulin-supplemented cheeses exhibited a significantly higher moisture content than FOS and the control groups. Streptococcus and Lactococcus were predominant in all cheeses and 2% inulin and 2% FOS-supplemented cheeses possessed significant amounts of nonstarter lactic acid bacteria found to be an unidentified group of Lactobacillaceae, which emerged after 90 d of aging. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that prebiotic supplementation of Cheddar cheese results in differing microbial and chemical characteristics.

Long-term follow-up and the role of surgery in adolescents with morbid obesity.

PURPOSE: Obesity has become a health-care crisis in the United States. Adolescent obesity is now one of the most common childhood disorders, with 4.7 million American adolescents having a body mass index (BMI) greater than the 95th percentile. Most patients do not respond to diet modification or exercise programs and attention is now turning toward surgery as a source of weight loss in adolescents. Few studies have looked at the overall morbidity and mortality of weight loss surgery in this patient population. METHODS: This is a retrospective study of medical charts of 15 bariatric surgical procedures performed on 14 adolescents without known genetic syndromes associated with severe childhood obesity from 1971 to 2001 at the University of Minnesota. Procedures performed on these patients included vertical banded gastroplasty (n = 7), Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (n = 5), and jejunoileal bypass (n = 3). Jejunoileal bypass procedures were performed from 1971 to 1977, after which time this procedure was abandoned. Patient age ranged from 13 to 17 years (mean, 15.7 years). Mean follow-up time was 6 years, with 9 patients available for long-term follow-up. RESULTS: All procedures were performed using an open technique by 1 surgeon. There were no perioperative deaths; complications included 1 case of wound infection, 2 episodes of dumping syndrome that resolved without revision, 1 episode of hypoglycemia, and 1 case of short-term electrolyte imbalance in a patient who underwent jejunoileal bypass. The average BMI dropped from 58.5 +/- 13.7 to 32.1 +/- 9.7 kg/m(2) (P < .01)--a 45% reduction. CONCLUSIONS: Surgery for morbid obesity is safe and results in significant weight loss in adolescents who fail medical therapy.