Development of Multifunctional Synbiotic Milk Powder

Abstract

Health benefits of probiotics have evoked new researches in the last few years. Probiotics are live micro-organisms which, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit on the host (FAO/WHO, 2002). Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization (FAO/WHO, 2006) have proposed several health benefits of these bacteria including reduction of cholesterol, reduction of lactose intolerance, immunomodulatory effects, resistance to enteric pathogens, and in the prevention of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and irritable bowel syndrome symptoms reduction. Today market offers a large number of functional foods claimed to contain probiotic micro-organisms. The popularity of these products has aroused interest of both consumers and researchers. The dairy products like yoghurt have always been the best carrier of probiotics. The present research work was carried out in order to develop Synbiotic milk Powder with L. plantarum and L. casei cultures that not only guarantee the safety of employed strains, but also that sufficient number of probiotic cells survive throughout the shelf-life of the product, generating desirable sensory qualities. newlineThe whole work was carried out in five phases. In first phase, three types of spray dried probiotic milk powder were prepared using L. plantarum (NDRI 401) and L. casei (NDRI 300). First, L. plantarum based PMP, second, L. casei based PMP and third, L. plantarum and L. casei mixed culture based PMP. Since a minimum of 106 CFU/mL probiotic bacteria must be present in all probiotic products till expiry date, experiments were performed at different levels of culture viz. 2%, 5% and 10% to get at least minimum 106 cfu/gm in the PMP developed. For all the experiments inlet and outlet air temperature was fixed to 170º C and 70º C respectively to obtain free flowing powder. Maltodextrin was used at15% of milk as carrier material to protect the cultures from high heat.