Examination of proliferation of probiotic microbes by isoperibolic calorimetry

Abstract

Due to the increasing consumers’ interest in up-to-date nutrition nowadays the production of main part of fermented dairy products (e.g. yogurt, kefir) is performed using probiotic microbes. The majority of this product group are the flavoured variations, the sweetener is, first of all, still refined sugar (e.g. saccharose). Honey of natural origin, consequently preferred from the nutrition-physiological point of view, could be proposed to replace this refined carbohydrate. To check its availability for this purpose the growth of microbes of the Hungarian culture of trade name Prebiolact-2 was examined. The probiotic properties of the culture are proved by clinical tests. At the determination of recipes of control and experimental samples we took into consideration that the milk composition and carbohydrate content of samples should have been the same, and they could differ only in carbohydrate-free component content of honey. During processing of the samples the minimum heat-treatment was applied to protect the biologically active components of honey to the greatest degree. Pasteurized-homogenized milk was used as raw material, in which granulated sugar and the honeys were solved, respectively, at 60 °C. The inoculation was made by Prebiolact-2 culture injected into the batch-wessel; the closed cells were agitated intensively for 10 s. General conclusion of thermal investigation is that the proliferation rate is longer lasting in case of honey treated milks. The acacia- honey resulted in the same probiotic proliferation as sugar did. In case of other herb-honeys the effect was smaller, very probably because of the strong bactericidal effect of herbs, which is very important from medical point of view. According to the results of the consumer survey over 85 % of them think that the consumption of herbs in the form of honey is especially beneficial from both dietary and market view.