Prebiotics and Synbiotics in Functional Foods

The functional food market is constantly expanding and updating, due to the consumers' demand for foods with functional benefits and a more balanced diet. Functional foods usually are described as foods fortified with special constituents that offer some beneficial action to human health. Among the foods that have a long history of functionality are the dairy products added with prebiotics and/or synbiotics. The daily consumption of prebiotics and/or synbiotics contributes significantly to human health, as in the prevention or treatment of irritable bowel syndrome, colon cancer, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. In addition, there is a great market demand for innovations in functional foods. With the current definitions of prebiotics and synbiotics updated and clarified (approaching two different categories of synbiotics, the complementary and the synergistic synbiotic), it became much easier for the industry and researchers to explore and create new prebiotics/synbiotics products. In this sense, recently, it was observed an increased quantity of scientific studies using prebiotics or synbiotics ingredients with prospective health claims in dairy products. This chapter will present the main updates on prebiotic and synbiotic dairy products and their health benefits.