Development and Comparative Evaluation of a Novel Fermented Juice Mixture with Probiotic Strains of Lactic Acid Bacteria and Bifidobacteria

Abstract

As being a rapidly developing area, the production of nondairy-based functional beverages continues to accelerate considerably. In the present study, the probiotification of a mixture of the juices of Jerusalem artichoke, pineapple, pumpkin, spinach, and cucumber has been utilized for the development of probiotic fruit-vegetable juice. Lactic acid fermentation was comparatively performed byLactobacillus acidophilusDSM13241,Lacticaseibacillus paracaseisubsp.paracaseiATCC 55544,Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosusATCC53103,Lactiplantibacillus plantarumDSMZ 20174, andBifidobacterium animalissubsp.lactisBB-12 at 37 degrees C for 24 h. Following, the fermented products were kept at 8 degrees C for 45 days, and viability of the strains were tested during the storage period, which refers 15th, 30th, and 45th days. During fermentation, the number of viable probiotic cells increased up to 9.42 log CFU/mL. Consequently, at the end of storage, all strains exhibited an acceptable amount of viability along withL. rhamnosusATCC 53103 with the highest value reaching 9.30 log CFU/mL. The beverage was successfully scaled up in a bioreactor followed by a sensory evaluation. Statistical analysis revealed that there is a significant difference (p < 0.05) on how much the product was enjoyed between all tested samples with an average score of 3.8 out of 7.0. Thus, flavor and consumer acceptability of the beverage was improved with the addition of 30% of apple juice. The results affirm that the proposed novel fermented mixture of Jerusalem artichoke, pineapple, pumpkin, spinach, and cucumber stands as a promising functional product to be placed in the beverage market.