Cottage cheese enriched with lactobacilli encapsulated in alginate-chitosan microparticles forestalls perishability and augments probiotic activity

The study aimed to investigate the effects of Aloe vera gel (AvG) and multi-layered microencapsulation on the survival of five Lactobacillus species in cottage cheese during 28 days of refrigerated storage. Testing of the probiotic and AvG-loaded synbiotic microparticles under simulated human digestion conditions showed that the synbiotic beads for L. fermentum, L. rhamnosus, and L. plantarum were on the average 8%-10% better than their probiotic counterparts. AvG augmented the antioxidant activity of synbiotic beads of L. rhamnosus and L. plantarum by 20%-30% and inhibition of foodborne pathogens by twofold in comparison with the control and probiotic particles. Synbiotic cheese also exhibited a more or less same sensory profile as the control cheese. These results suggest that cottage cheese fortified with AvG filled alginate-chitosan beads loaded with either L. rhamnosus or L. plantarum strains, can prevent pathogen invasion, maintain functional qualities, and deliver more probiotics to the human gut. Practical applications The success of microencapsulating probiotics has been marred by its inability to ensure adequate cell viability. Co-encapsulation with prebiotics has circumvented this bottleneck, the degree of success greatly dependent on the choice of prebiotic material used. Fresh cottage cheese embedded with a tripartite blend of bioactive elements has better shelf life and safety constitutes a potentially novel fourth-generation synbiotic that is commercially exploitable.