value and the bread-making performance of whole wheat bread (Haros, Rosell, & Benedito, 2001).
Recently, human gut isolated Bifidobacterium pseudocatenulatum ATCC27919 (Haros et al., 2009) was assayed to hydrolyse phytate at GI level of humans and animals. Haraldsson, Veide, Andlid, Alminger, and Sandberg (2005) reported that the wildtype S. cerevisiae strains were not able to hydrolyse phytate under simulated GI conditions. However, a wide characterization of the phytase activity from yeasts, including S. cerevisiae strains, is needed to elucidate their role in the degradation of phytic acid during the fermentative processes and under GI conditions.
The aim of this work was to select a phytase active yeast to be used as starter to reduce the phytate content during bread-making process or as probiotic to hydrolyse phytate under simulated GI conditions