Recommendations for the viability assessment of probiotics as concentrated cultures and in food matrices

Champagne, C. P., Ross, R. P., Saarela, M., Hansen, K. F. and Charalampopoulos, D. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1269-8402 (2011) Recommendations for the viability assessment of probiotics as concentrated cultures and in food matrices. International Journal of Food Microbiology, 149 (3). pp. 185-193. ISSN 0168-1605 doi: 10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2011.07.005

Abstract/Summary

Due to the fact that probiotic cells need to be alive when they are consumed, culture-based analysis (plate count) is critical in ascertaining the quality (numbers of viable cells) of probiotic products. Since probiotic cells are typically stressed, due to various factors related to their production, processing and formulation, the standard methodology for total plate counts tends to underestimate the cell numbers of these products. Furthermore, products such as microencapsulated cultures require modifications in the release and sampling procedure in order to correctly estimate viable counts. This review examines the enumeration of probiotic bacteria in the following commercial products: powders, microencapsulated cultures, frozen concentrates, capsules, foods and beverages. The parameters which are specifically examined include: sample preparation (rehydration, thawing), dilutions (homogenization, media) and plating (media, incubation) procedures. Recommendations are provided for each of these analytical steps to improve the accuracy of the analysis. Although the recommendations specifically target the analysis of probiotics, many will apply to the analysis of commercial lactic starter cultures used in food fermentations as well.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/25632
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Chemistry, Food and Pharmacy > Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences > Food Research Group
Uncontrolled Keywords	Probiotics; Viable counts; Encapsulation; Methodology; Rehydration; Thawing
Publisher	Elsevier
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