ఫుడ్ ప్రాసెసింగ్ & టెక్నాలజీ జర్నల్

నైరూప్య

Development and Evaluation of a Non-Dairy Probiotic Beverage from Brown Rice (Oryza sativia)

Joel Ndife*, Adindu Linus-Chibuezeh, Vanessa C. Ezeocha, Maureen C. Ojinnaka

The development of functional foods to promote health is currently of global relevance. Prebiotics are food ingredients that exert beneficial health effects on the host by stimulating the growth of probiotics. This work examined the potential of brown rice in the production of probiotic beverage (PB) inoculated with Lactobacillus acidophilus and Streptococcus thermophillus. The beverage quality and probiotic viability were evaluated over 4 weeks storage and compared with a control beverage (CB) which was produced without inoculation. The physicochemical analyzes result showed viscosity of PB (601-1200 cp) to be higher than CB (500-550 cp). The specific gravity of PB (0.99-1.90) was not significantly different from CB (1.00-1.92). The % Brix increased more in PB (6.10-7.00) than in CB (4.90-6.50). There was more reduction in pH in a probiotic beverage (5.32-4.77) than in the control (6.21-5.96). The total microbial count at the end of fermentation ranged from 3.3 × 10⁸ to 4.1 × 10⁹ CFU/ml for PB and 1.0 × 10¹ to 3.3 × 10³ CFU/ml for the control sample CB. There were no detectable fungi and coliform growths in the probiotic sample (PB). However, a range of 1.1 × 10¹ to 4.2 × 10³ CFU/ml fungi and <1.0 × 10¹ CFU/ml coliforms were observed in the control (CB). Lactobacillus acidophilus (5.0 × 10⁶ to 2.9 × 10⁷) CFU/ml proliferated more compared to Streptococcus thermophillus (2.0 × 10⁵ to 3.2 × 10⁶) CFU/ml in the probiotic sample (PB) but lagged in the control sample (CB). The beverages differed significantly (p ≥ 0.05) with respect to overall sensory acceptability. The inoculated beverage (PB) showed better acceptance than the non-fermented beverage (CB). At the end of 4 weeks of evaluation, the inoculated brown rice beverage was able to support high probiotic cell viability which confirms its prebiotic potential.