Incorporation of probiotic cultures in foodservice products: an exploratory study

Abstract

AbstractFoodservice organizations may be able to enter the fast‐growing functional food market by designing dishes with probiotics (beneficial bacteria). This is the first report on adding probiotic cultures to foodservice products. The viability of the commercial frozen and freeze‐dried preparations of two probiotic strains, Lactobacillus acidophilus (LA‐5) and Bifidobacterium animalis ssp. lactis (BB‐12), was evaluated during storage at −20°C and after incorporation into five dishes, four condiments and two ‘diluted’ culture preparations. The enumeration of viable populations was performed by the standard plating technique. Although the freeze‐dried cultures showed higher reduction in viability during the 120 days of storage at −20°C (3.6–4.0 log10 cfu/g reduction from the initial levels of 2 × 1011 cfu/g for LA‐5 and 1015 cfu/g for BB‐12), in food trials they provided higher inoculums (the range of 109–1011 cfu/g in comparison with 107–108 cfu/g for the frozen preparations). This resulted in higher viable counts at the end of storage. The product type affected the survival of the cultures. Items with high pH (served cold) showed potential as probiotic carriers: sandwich (viable counts of LA‐5 and BB‐12 in the range of 6.3 × 106–2.5 × 108 cfu/g after 3 h), sushi (7.9 × 106–1.2 × 108 cfu/g after 24 h) and smoothies (3.2 × 106–1.6 × 107 cfu/g, no storage). Butter, vegetable oil, mayonnaise and vinaigrette stored for 4 days, and the hot hamburger, however, were not suitable – no viable count was detected. Only freeze‐dried BB‐12 survived in butter at the level of 3.2 × 108 cfu/g. Freeze‐dried diluted powder mixes, which can be made available at the table for use by the customer, should be replaced frequently to maintain culture viability.