Formulation, Processing and Characterization of Fermented Probiotic Mango Juice Using Selected Starter Cultures

Probiotics are live microorganisms added to food products to confer health benefits such as gut health, cancer protection and improved immunity when consumed. Fruits juices are considered as potential channels for delivering probiotics as they contain essential nutrients and low pH suitable for the growth of probiotics. The study was undertaken to formulate, process and characterize fermented probiotic mango fruit juice using three different mixed lactic acid bacteria cultures: Abt-5® culture (Streptococcus thermophillus, Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus acidophilus); Fiti® culture (Lactobacillus rhamnosus GR-1) and Yo-mix® culture (Streptoc.occus thermophillus and Lactobacillus delbruikii ssp bulgaricus). The viability of the cultures was also assessed. The mango juice was formulated using mango pulp to water ratios of 100:0, 25:75, 50:50 and 75:25 (v/v) and adjusted to 17° brix by adding cane sugar. The formulated mango juices were pasteurized at 90 °C for 1 minute and cooled to 10 °C. Sensory evaluation was carried out to determine the most preferred formulation of the fruit juice before fermentation. The preferred mango juice samples were cooled to 402 °C and incubated with the three different mixed bacteria cultures (1 g/l) for 0, 12, 16, 24, 36, 48 and 72 hours. The final product stored at 4 °C. Analysis for sensory evaluation, culture viability, pH, total soluble solids (TSS) and total titratable acidity (TTA) was done. The 50:50 ([mango pulp: water) mango fruit juice formulation was significantly different (p