Production of Probiotic Passion Fruit (Passiflora edulis Sims f. flavicarpa Deg.) Drink Using Lactobacillus reuteri and Microencapsulation via Spray Drying.

Shênia Santos Monteiro,Matheus Pasquali,Hugo Miguel Lisboa Oliveira,Yolanda Albertina Silva Beserra

doi:10.3390/foods9030335

Shênia Santos Monteiro, Matheus Pasquali + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/foods9030335

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Abstract

Probiotic foods offer many benefits to human health, causing increased interest in the development of new food products that exploit such benefits. However, traditional dairy foods are being replaced by other non-dairy foods to provide additional sources of benefits provided by bioactive molecules. Therefore, the objective of the present work was to study the production process of a probiotic fruit drink and then microencapsulate the probiotic pulp to stabilize the drink further. Passion fruit pulp (Passiflora edulis Sims f. flavicarpa Deg.) was fermented with Lactobacillus reuteri under different temperature conditions in combination with different pHs to find the best fermentation conditions. Different from dairy sources, the optimal conditions for the growth of Lactobacillus reuteri in the passion fruit pulp were found to be 30 °C at pH 3.18, where phenolic compounds could also be used as a secondary metabolic pathway. Spray-drying was performed using different conditions for microencapsulation. Process yields and Lactobacillus reuteri survival showed the dependency of droplet sizes, whereas phenolic compound retention was increased when higher amounts of gelatin were used. Therefore, the development of a new food product comprising a powdered fruit pulp rich in probiotic and phenolic compounds was possible.

Highlights

In recent years, increasing attention has been given to functional foods, mainly due to the interest in consuming foods that have beneficial health properties, such as probiotic foods [1]
The yellow passion fruit (Passiflora edulis Sims f. flavicarpa Deg.) and gelatin were purchased at the local market of Campina Grande (Paraíba Brazil)
Fruit pulp extracted in our study presented a pH of 3.18, a similar value found for pasteurized and frozen passion fruit pulp [20]

Summary

Introduction

In recent years, increasing attention has been given to functional foods, mainly due to the interest in consuming foods that have beneficial health properties, such as probiotic foods [1]. Probiotic cultures provide several health benefits that are still under-researched in order to be fully exploited [2]. Considerable attention is being given to extending probiotics into non-dairy foods. The motivation is related to groups of people who generally do not consume them for any reason, such as lactose intolerance, milk allergies, or simple dislike [4]. The search for different products opens an opportunity to combine the benefits of probiotic cultures with bioactive molecules. The addition of probiotic on non-dairy products can be challenging, especially in fruit juices because of low pH, organic acids, and the absence of molecules typically present on milk.

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