**4.3 Antimicrobial action**

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 30% of the population of industrialized countries in 2007 suffered from foodborne intestinal infections transmitted by food, creating, consequently, a public health problem. Due to the increased resistance of pathogenic organisms to antibiotics, new methods for gastrointestinal prevention and control are under investigation [26]. An investigation conducted an *in vivo* mouse study of the anti-infective effect of MFGM on *Salmonella enteritidis* and *Listeria monocytogenes,* a Gram-negative and a Grampositive pathogen, respectively. The study demonstrated that ingestion of MFGMrich buttermilk powder increased resistance to *L. monocytogenes* compared to skim milk with low amount of MFGM. This increase of resistance can be explained by the products of the phosphoglyceride and sphingolipid digestion, which showed to have antimicrobial activity *in vitro*. Another likely mechanism for resistance to *L. monocytogenes* colonization is that MFGM proteins promote inhibition of pathogen adhesion in the intestinal mucosa [26].
