A survey on possibility of using orange/mango nectar as a probiotic carrier

Today dairy products are the most familiar probiotic products in Iran. In recent years because of three factors such as lactose intolerance in some consumers, the present of cholesterol in milk and the present of allergenic protein in milk, consumers prefer to use non-dairy probiotic products instead of dairy probiotic products. The aim of the present study was to investigate the probability of the use of orange/mango nectar as a carrier for the probiotic bacteria. At first, physicochemical properties of orange/mango nectar were evaluated. Then lactobacillus acidophilus was used as probiotic strain. Probiotic bacterium was inoculated to the orange/mango nectar, and then it was stored at 4ºC. The pH of probiotic nectar and the viability of probiotic bacteria in orange/mango nectar were evaluated at the end of each week. The results showed that viability of lactobacillus acidophilus reached to 106 cfu/ml within one week and to 105 cfu/ml within two weeks. There was no significant difference in pH. Orange/mango nectar may not be a suitable carrier for probiotics, but because of the benefits of this product and viability of strain for 7 days without pH difference, it is suitable to study more for increasing the shelf life of probiotic orange/mango nectar, it is required to using prebiotics and different technology of microencapsulation for introducing this product to food industries.