Studies on different polysaccharides used as carrier material for spray-drying of synbiotics and its viability under different storage conditions

The objective of this study was to investigate the different polysaccharides as carrier material for spray-drying synbiotics and to study the physicochemical characteristics of synbiotics at different storage conditions. The thermally acclimatized probiotic strains, Lactobacillus helveticus (H-45) and Lacticaseibacillus casei (N-45) with enhanced probiotic properties were spray-dried using these polysaccharides along with galactooligosaccharides (GOS) as prebiotic. The studied plant-based polysaccharides are maltodextrin (MDX), corn starch (CS), and gum acacia (GA). After spray-drying, the survivability of all synbiotic combinations was higher in the presence of corn starch as carrier material. The synbiotic combination N45 + GOS + CS showed better survivability during spraydrying, under simulated intestinal (8.43 +/- 0.17 log CFU/g), acid (5.51 +/- 0.12 log CFU/g), and bile (7.31 +/- 0.04 log CFU/g) conditions. The spray-dried powders had good to moderate flow properties with moisture content and water activity (aw) at the optimal range for the survival of probiotics. Among the spray-dried powders, synbioticN45 + GOS + CS showed improved storage survivability during shelf-life studies at three different temperatures (4 degrees C, 30 degrees C, and 37 degrees C) for eight weeks. However, all spray-dried probiotic and synbiotic powders had higher viability when stored at 4 degrees C. Hence, the study suggests that cornstarch as a polysaccharide in the synbiotics formulation (N45 + GOS + CS) may have a potential application in functional foods.