Evaluation of the viability of free and encapsulated lactic acid bacteria using in vitro gastro intestinal model and post storage survivability studies of synbiotic microcapsules in dry food matrix

Gastro-intestinal tolerance is inevitable for probiotics to allow enough live cell arrival in colon for bestowing their health benefits. The efficiency of l actic acid bacteria (LAB) en route to colon was studied in an in vitro gastro-intestinal model. The effect of storage on bacterial and synbiotic microcapsules in dry food matrix was studied using Pleurotus ostreatus as the source of prebiotics. Cereal health mix from Tamil Nadu, India n traditional dry food snack and universal health drink Malted health drink was used as the mat rices to study the stability of microcapsules in dry formulations. LAB were checked in free and encap sulated forms for tolerance towards stress conditions and encapsulation was found to protect th e bacteria and enhance their survival. There was 72% to 87% survivability of bacteria in synbioti c microcapsules after storage in dry food matrix. L. bulgaricus NCIM 2056 and L. plantarum NCIM 2083 showed highest level of survivability in the synbiotic microcapsules stored in all the dry food matrices studied. Shelfstable (not requiring refrigeration) dry probiotic f oods would be path breaking products in probiotics industry to overcome the disadvantages of liquid probiotic formulations. The present work is an initiative towards formulation of such pr oduct which can be replicated using probiotic LAB.