Potential of Incorporating a Functional Probiotic Encapsulant in Whipped Cream

Abstract

The probiotic foods market is expanding; however, maintaining probiotics viability is challenging during manufacturing and storage conditions. In this study, a functional ingredient containing whey protein hydrolysate-encapsulated probiotics was standardized into whipped cream, followed by its characterization and storage stability study. The whipped cream was prepared under standard laboratory conditions, and the encapsulant was added at 0.1% and 1% w/w levels. The samples were further characterized through viable probiotic counts, physicochemical and microstructural analysis. Analyses were conducted in triplicates, and ANOVA was applied to differentiate between the mean values (p < 0.05). The whipped cream variant with 1% w/w encapsulant addition exhibited higher viability of Lactobacillus acidophilus ATCC4356 (LA5) (7.38 ± 0.26 log10CFU/g) and Bifidobacterium animalis ssp. Lactis ATCC27536 (BB12) (7.25 ± 0.56 log10CFU/g) along with enhanced physicochemical properties as compared to the LA5 (6.53 ± 0.45 log10CFU/g) and BB12 (6.41 ± 0.39 log10CFU/g) counts in the 0.1% variant. This was attributed to the thicker and uniform encapsulant deposition at the O/W interface observed in micro-images. The storage stability results did not show a substantial difference in viability for encapsulated probiotics compared to the control. The encapsulant also maintained the 1:1 ratio of LA5 and BB12. Thus, a value-added range of dairy products could be introduced with enhanced physicochemical attributes.