Encapsulation of probiotics and their application in beef patties

Background. Probiotics have been widely used in foods due to their health implications and can be used in meat products to improve physicochemical and microbiological properties.Materials and methods. Free and encapsulated L. plantarum and L. rhamnosus were added to beef patties. The physicochemical and microbiological properties of the beef patties were analyzed during refrigerated storage (10 days). A control treatment was made without probiotic addition. The encapsulation yield, mor-phological characterization, and size of the capsules were also measured.Results. The pH values of the beef patties decreased during storage in treatments with probiotic addition. Furthermore, the probiotic strains were able to maintain the traditional meat color of the products. Lipid oxidation was lower in the treatments with probiotics as free cells. The beef patties with probiotic addition presented high levels of lactic acid bacteria during the whole refrigerated storage period. The treatments with specific strain addition also had higher levels of specific probiotic counts. However, the treatments with L. rhamnosus showed higher specific counts than those with L. plantarum at the end of the storage period.Conclusion. Both probiotic strains and strategies of incorporation proved to be suitable for use in beef pat-ties because of their high probiotic viability. However, encapsulated L. rhamnosus provided higher bacterial counts at the end of the storage period of the beef patties.