Abstract
Plant derived beverages have recently gained consumers’ interest, particularly due to their intrinsic functional properties. They can also act as non-dairy carriers for probiotics and prebiotics, meeting the needs of lactose allergic/intolerant people and vegans. Direct fermentation of fruit and vegetables juices by probiotic lactic acid bacteria could be a tool to increase safety, shelf-life, nutrients bioavailability and to improve sensorial features of plant derived juices. This study aims to screen wild Lactobacillus casei-group strains isolated from dairy matrices for probiotic features, such as acid and bile salts resistance, and test them for the potentiality to ferment celery and orange juices. Strains’ ability to produce exopolysaccharides (EPS) in situ is also checked. These evaluations were performed for the first time in fruit and vegetables matrices by means of an impedometric analysis, recently shown to be a suitable and rapid method to measure microorganisms’ growth, acidification performances and EPS production. This study allowed the selection of three potentially probiotic L. casei-group wild strains able to ferment fruit and vegetable juices and also producing EPS. These strains with three-in-one abilities could be used to produce new functional fermented plant derived juices.
Highlights
Demand for plant derived products has increased in recent years due to their recognized health benefits [1,2,3]
The aim of this study is to evaluate the ability of wild dairy L. casei-group strains to ferment plant derived substrates and to produce EPS in situ, in order to select the most suitable to be used for the production of functional juices
Ten out of the 53 analyzed strains, were tested for their ability to grow in non-dairy extracts: four Lactobacillus casei (Lc 2233, Lc 2243, Lc 2404, Lc 2410); one Lactobacillus paracasei (Lp 2306) and five Lactobacillus rhamnosus (Lr 2216, Lr 2299, Lr 2325, Lr 2409, Lr 2462)
Summary
Demand for plant derived products has increased in recent years due to their recognized health benefits [1,2,3]. Recommendations suggest the consumption of fresh fruit over fruit juices and derivatives, sometimes supplying the markets with fresh fruit can be tricky because of the high intrinsic perishability of fruit In this optic, non-sweetened fruit and vegetable juices can be valid alternatives to whole fruit equivalents in meeting dietary requirements, improving cardiovascular health and lowering incidence of several chronic non-communicable diseases [4,5,6]. Non-sweetened fruit and vegetable juices can be valid alternatives to whole fruit equivalents in meeting dietary requirements, improving cardiovascular health and lowering incidence of several chronic non-communicable diseases [4,5,6] For this reason, the attention of industry has focused on producing juices or formulated beverages with nutritional properties, such as richness in bioactive compounds and nutrient factors [7]. These could modify juices’ nutritional properties, by degrading micronutrients and lowering contents of vitamin
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