Functional foods as carriers for SYNBIO®, a probiotic bacteria combination

The popularity of functional foods continues to increase as consumers desire flavorful foods that will fulfil their health needs. Among these foods, probiotics may exert positive effects on the composition of gut microbiota and overall health. However, in order to be beneficial, the bacterial cultures have to remain live and active at the time of consumption. The aim of this study was to develop new probiotic food products, such as seasoned cheeses, salami, chocolate and ice-cream with a final probiotic concentration of approximately 10(9) CFU/daily dose of Lactobacillus rhamnosus IMC 501 (R) and Lactobacillus paracasei IMC 502 (R) mixed 1:1 (SYNBIO (R)). The survival and viability of probiotics were determined during the foods shelf-life. The values of viable probiotic bacteria of all dairy and non-dairy foods were between 10(7) and 10(9) CFU/g of food at the end of the shelf-life and for some of them the values were maintained even after the expiry date. Based on the results of the current study, all the dairy (Caciotta cheese, Pecorino cheese, Buscion Swiss cheese and Fiordilatte ice-cream) and non-dairy (Ciauscolo salami, Larded salami, Swiss small salami, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, organic jam and chocolate mousse) food products studied would be excellent vehicles to deliver the probiotic health effects because of the high viability of probiotics during the shelf-life of foods and in some cases even after their expiry date. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.