Studies on Suitability to Incorporate Tropical Fruit Pulp in Whey-based Probiotic Beverage

Abstract

Background: The present investigation was planned to standardize a method for preparation of whey-based fermented probiotic beverage containing Alfonso mango (Mangifera indica) pulp. This study was undertaken in view of the fact that the probiotic foods can play an important role in promoting health and reducing public health care costs in a developing country like India. As such the whey is the major dairy by-product, which causes enormous environmental problems leading to enforcement of stringent laws by the pollution control authorities. The Indian dairy industry is exploring the ways to utilize whey in more economical way. Methods: The lab-made paneer whey (Indian milk curd) was utilized in the study. The fresh Alfonso pulp was used for value-addition of the product. The probiotic culture of Lactobacillus rhamnosus-MTCC-5463 was used for fermentation. The method was standardized and the product was subjected for its sensory evaluation. Result: It was observed that the whey-based probiotic beverage containing 15% Alfonso pulp (v/w) was liked most with mean score of 8.75 followed by 10% pulp with mean score 5.39 out of 9.0 in the nine-point Hedonic scale. The product containing 5% Alfonso pulp was disliked by the judges with a mean score of 4.54. It was concluded that the whey-based probiotic beverage containing 10-15% mango pulp can be prepared with probiotic viable counts of 107 cfu/ml. This would be one of the promising ways to utilize the whey and developing gastrointestinal health promoting product.