AN ANALYTICAL STUDY ON FORMULATION OF PROBIOTIC CHOCOLATES USING LYOPHILIZED CELLS OF Lactobacillus

Benefits associated with consumption of probiotics and prebiotics are well known and many clinical studies have proven their positive impact on human health. The industrial interest in the usage of probiotics along with prebiotics in new food and pharmaceutical products is gradually increasing. However, the probiotic viability and stability during processing, storage as well as under adverse conditions during the gastrointestinal digestion are the significant challenges in probiotic products development. Development of an efficient formulation of live bacterial cells is a major challenge in the commercialization of probiotic products. Probiotic formulations should retain predetermined dose of live bacterial cells during storage. Freeze-drying is a more convenient process and such cells can be used conveniently as a functional ingredient in a variety of probiotic food formulations. Various sugars such as glucose, fructose, lactose, mannose and sucrose have been tested for their protective effect during drying and subsequent storage. In this study skim milk and sugars glucose, lactose and sucrose were used as carrier media during the freeze-drying process. Lyophilization caused the 16% reduction in viable count of cells; carrier medium provided the protection against loss of cell viability during the storage period of 4 months. Skim milk+sucrose, skim milk+lactose proven to be effective in comparison to skim milk, skim milk+glucose, and free cells.