Study of prebiotic effect of chickpea flour on survival of probiotic Lactobacillus paracasei in fruit yoghurt containing apple puree and its qualitative properties

In this study the effect of chickpea flour in three ranges of (0, 1.5 & 3%) and storage time in three ranges of (1, 11 & 21 days) on survival of lactobacillus paracasei and qualitative properties of fruit yogurt containing 15% apple puree was investigated using response surface method (RSM). The statistical analysis of the results showed that with increasing of chickpea flour up to 0.5%, lactobacillus paracasei viability increased but with increasing of flour more than this amount the bacterial count decreased significantly (P<0.05). The bacterial count decreased during storage (P<0.05). The addition of chickpea flour decreased pH, moisture content, syneresis and increased acidity, ash and apparent viscosity significantly (P<0.05). During storage pH and moisture content decreased and apparent viscosity increased (P<0.05). In sensorial evaluation of samples the addition of chickpea flour decreased the flavor score and improved consistency score (P<0.05). In conclusion, using of 2.36% of chickpea flour and with storage period of 9 days was determined as optimum conditions.