Nonbovine milk and its products as sources of probiotics delivery: An overview of its viability,functionality and product quality characteristics

Dairy products are the most predominant food carriers for probiotics, providing adequate therapeutic and functional benefits to the host when sufficient probiotics are maintained. Bovine milk currently dominates the global probiotic food market, but there is an increasing trend of applying nonbovine milk from other dairy animals as probiotic carrier food matrices as described in this review. Nonbovine dairy products can be considered suitable food matrices for probiotic delivery due to their excellent probiotic viability (mostly >log 7 cfu/mL or g) during shelf life, functional properties and product quality characteristics, being considered desirable and novel dairy products.