Dried Fruit Matrices Incorporated with a Probiotic Strain of Lactobacillus plantarum

Abstract

The development of fruits and vegetables containing probiotics is a topic of great interest and popularity for health-conscious consumers. The aim of this study was to evaluate the possibility of using dried fruit matrices as delivery vehicles for probiotics. Different fruits -kiwi, mango, strawberry, pineapple, banana -were used as food matrices to test the viability of a strain of Lactobacillus plantarum, which was determined after drying at 40 o C and at different storage times. Cell survival after drying decreased by ca. 1 log in banana and strawberry, to 3 log, for kiwi. The bacterial numbers in banana and strawberry dried pieces at the time of storage at room temperature and 4 o C were approximately 10 7 cfu/g. After 37 days storage at room temperature, no viable counts were observed in any of the fruits studied. However after this period of time at 4 o C, viable cells were detected for all the fruits (1.9x106 cfu/g, 1.5x10 5 cfu/g, 1.5x10 5 cfu/g, 4.7x10 4 cfu/g, 8.0x10 3 cfu/g, for strawberry, banana, kiwi, mango and pineapple, respectively).

Functional Dehydrated Foods for Health Preservation

“…In several situations, air drying of the impregnated samples resulted in a reduction of the microbial content, although the level of cells was enough to be considered as probiotic, as stated by Betoret et al [106] and Ribeiro [105]. When Noorbakhsh et al [50] applied air drying, freeze drying, and air drying + radiant energy under vacuum (REV) to apple slices impregnated with L. rhamnosus, they verified that freeze drying protected bacteria better than the other two methods.…”

“…Apple is still the preferred base, although other plant products may be used. Nevertheless, the fruit matrix is an important parameter to take into account because those more porous fruits seem to facilitate the incorporation of probiotics in their tissues during immersion [105] and/or during vacuum impregnation [13]. The probiotics tested include several bacteria, Lactobacillus spp.…”

Evaluación de la Incorporación de Fibra Prebiótica sobre la Viabilidad de LactobaciHus casei Impregnado en Matrices de Mora (Rubus glaucus)

“…Lactobacillus rhamnosus sin mayor afectación en los recuentos de UFC/g (Röble et al, 2010); (Ribeiro et al, 2014) describen recuentos mayores en la viabilidad para frutas con valores mayores de pH (pH 4.5 -5.2) observando un descenso proporcional de la viabilidad con la acidez de la fruta. Estos autores sin embargo justifican la sobrevivencia de los microorganismos a las características físico-químicas de las frutas y a su porosidad principalmente (Ribeiro et al, 2014).…”

“…Estos autores sin embargo justifican la sobrevivencia de los microorganismos a las características físico-químicas de las frutas y a su porosidad principalmente (Ribeiro et al, 2014).…”

“…Resultados reportados por (Ribeiro et al,2014) tras un proceso de secado a 40°C muestran que no se observan recuentos de viables luego de 37 días almacenados a temperatura ambiente, Serna et al, (2015) incorporaron probióticos en cobertura de chocolate para ser utilizada como recubrimiento en barras de cereal, los resultados de viabilidad en esta matriz fueron de 10 7 UFC/g, al final del proceso de fabricación y consideran que el recuento es bajo debido a que los microorganismos aún deben sobrevivir al proceso de almacenamiento y a los jugos gástricos e intestinales del consumidor. En nuestro caso, el porcentaje de reducción de viabilidad durante el tratamiento de secado y posterior almacenamiento fue bajo, probablemente debido al efecto termoprotector del agente prebiótico.…”