Development of Functional Meals with Bifidobacteria.

This article reports the possibility to design functional meals with probiotics, health-improving bacteria of the gut. Such applications require a simple addition of cultures to products. However, their survival at the therapeutic level (>107colony forming units/gram) is the main technological challenge. Operators need assurance that the products they advertise as probiotic actually have sufficient populations of the live bacteria. The aim of the study was to test the viability of the freeze-dried probiotic strain Bifidobacterium animalis ssp. lactis in selected beverages, dishes, and condiments. Viable populations were enumerated using the standard plate count technique on the reinforced clostridial agar. The results showed that the high acidity of products such as vinaigrette and mayonnaise combined with long storage time was detrimental to probiotic survival. In general, items consumed shortly after the culture is added (cold beverages) and those with low acidity (sandwiches, sushi, rice pudding, butter, soy sauce, and buttermilk dressing) are suitable as probiotic carriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]