Abstract #W135

# W135
Effect of inulin and lactulose on characteristics of Iranian probiotic ultrafiltration feta cheese.
Maryam Enteshari1, Mahshid Azizi*2, Bahram Jirsaraei3, Mohammadreza Dolatkhahnejad4, 1Department of Food Science and Technology, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, 2Islamic Azad University of Birjand, Chemical Engineering and Food Industries Department, Tehran, Iran,, 3Azad University of Varamin, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Food Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran, 4Islamic Azad University of Ayatollah Amoli, Food Industries and Scientific Engineering Department, Tehran, Iran.

Nowadays, consumers’ demands for foods with health effect, desirable organoleptic and mouth feel characteristics, low-caloric and low fat content have greatly increased. Meanwhile, consumption of synbiotic products (simultaneous presence of probiotic and prebiotic) has revealed functional properties. In this study, effects of prebiotic compounds including inulin (I), lactulose (L), and inulin-lactulose (IL) on physicochemical, sensorial and survival of Lactobacillus casei in ultrafiltration (UF) probiotic cheese in different storage days (1, 15, 30, 45 and 60) have been evaluated. Obtained results revealed that changes in pH values for all of cheese samples during storage were significant with a descending trend; the pH of IL sample declined significantly from initial value of 4.71 to 4.48 at the end of storage (P < 0.05). In other ways, amounts of acidity for all of cheese samples increased significantly during storage (P < 0.05); at the initial and final days of storage, the IL sample exhibited the highest acidity values (1.66 and 2.03 g/100g, respectively) while the L sample presented the lowest ones (0.98 and 1.23 g/100g, respectively). At the first and final days of storage time, the highest (65.11 and 64.8%, respectively) and lowest amounts of moisture content (63.27 and 63.12%, respectively) pertained to the C (control) and I samples, correspondingly. The cheese samples of I and IL presented the highest sensory scores. At the end of storage, the highest numbers of Lactobacillus casei were observed in the samples of I and L (in the range of 7.83–7.9 Log cfu/g) and the lowest one belonged to the C sample (6.63 Log cfu/g). Therefore, in this research the final synbiotic cheese which contained more than 107 cfu/g viable Lactobacillus casei at the end of storage, is being proposed as probiotic product and the inulin or lactulose prebiotic compounds in the single mixture (I or L samples) have protective effect on the survival of Lactobacillus casei.

Key Words: ultrafiltration cheese, probiotic, prebiotic