Development and characterisation of synbiotic whey beverage

Abstract

Synbiotic foods has revolutionised the status of functional foods socially as well as environmentally. The stringent environmental rules over disposal of whey and it’s high nutritional value driven industries to develop new products. Among developed whey based products fermented products has got peculiar position. In this study authors optimized sugar and flavour of a synbiotic whey beverage, also analysed for its proximate composition and storage stability.  The developed synbiotic product had possessed following physico chemical parameters: pH 3.67, acidity 0.90 per cent Lactic acid (LA), moisture 82.92 per cent, total solids 17.08 per cent, lactose 4.72 per cent, protein 0.43 per cent and fat 0.25 per cent. The beverage was found to have a probiotic count of 9.22 log10cfu/ml. Coliforms and yeast & molds were found to be absent for a period of 9 days. Rheological properties of whey beverage revealed that the product has shown shear thinning behaviour with higher loss modulus (G’’) values indicating viscous behaviour. Under refrigeration the drink started showing sign of spoilage from 10th day onwards. FAO/ WHO (2002) stipulated probiotic count was present in the product till 9th day of storage. From shelf life study it can be inferred that newly developed synbiotic whey drink has got shelf life of 9 days under refrigeration.