Development and characterisation of synbiotic whey beverage

Abstract

Synbiotic foods has revolutionised the status of functional foods socially as well as commercially. The stringent environmental rules over disposal of whey and it's high nutritional value has driven industries to develop new whey based functional products. Among developed whey-based products fermented products has got significant position. In this study authors optimized a synbiotic whey beverage and also analysed for its proximate composition and storage stability. The developed synbiotic product had possessed following physico-chemical parameters: pH 3.67, acidity 0.90 per cent Lactic acid (LA), moisture 82.92 %, total solids 17.08 %, lactose 4.72 %, protein 0.43 % and fat 0.25 %. The beverage was found to have a probiotic count of 9.22 log 10 cfu/ml. Coliforms, yeast and molds counts were found to be absent for a period of 9 days. Rheological properties of whey beverage revealed that the product had a shear thinning behaviour with higher loss modulus (G'') values indicating viscous behaviour. Under refrigeration the drink started showing sign of spoilage from tenth day of storage. The required probiotic count was maintained in the product till 9 th day of refrigerated storage as per legal requirement of FAO/ WHO (2002). From study it can be inferred that newly developed synbiotic whey drink has got shelf life of 9 days under refrigeration.