Survivability Assessment of Saccharomyces boulardii in a Symbiotic System Using Nutraceuticals and Modified Atmosphere Packaging

Abstract

Cereal flakes are the most popular breakfast choices in the segment of ready-to-eat food products and generally consumed with hot milk. Fortification of cereal flakes with probiotics may increase the value addition, but the high temperature of milk limits the use of live microorganisms. The present work aims to develop the thermo-stable probiotic cereal flakes, which can withstand in hot milk up to 80 °C temperature. A coating blend containing Saccharomyces boulardii (109 CFU/mL) and gum Arabic (6% w/v) was applied on various cereal flakes, and the survivability was evaluated in the hot milk. Cornflakes showed better compatibility with the coating mixture by showing maximum survivability of S. boulardii (7.30 log CFU/g) over the control (2.61 log CFU/g). Further, the addition of nutraceuticals such as trehalose, glutathione, and oryzanol in different concentrations to coating mixture was also assessed. The cornflakes containing trehalose (0.4 mg/g) in its coating have resulted in maximum survivability of 7.99 log CFU/g and showed 3.26-fold higher thermo-protective role as compared to control. Sensory analysis showed an increased acceptability of gum Arabic coated cornflakes over the control due to change in viscosity of milk after its addition. SEM analysis clearly differentiated the surface based on treatments given to cornflakes. Modified atmosphere packaging of probiotic cornflakes using a vacuum, nitrogen gas, and air was done and then storage studies were done for 90 days.