Development of a carotenoid enriched probiotic yogurt from fresh biomass of Spirulina and its characterization.

Incorporation of Spirulina in milk as thermally
dried powder has the disadvantages of non-uniform distribution with undesirable odor and flavor. Through
homogenization (200 ± 10 bar), complete dispersion of
fresh Spirulina biomass (7% w/w) in milk was achieved
and thereafter a carotenoid enriched probiotic yogurt was
developed. Confocal microscopy revealed porous Spirulina-milk protein matrix integrated with smaller fat
globules in the yogurt. Spirulina led to a 29.56% increase
in Lactobacillus acidophilus count, a 20% reduction in
fermentation time and a total probiotic count of 1.2 9 107
CFU mL-1
. The protein, total chlorophyll, total carotenoid
and b-carotene content (on dry w/w basis) were
3.58 ± 0.08 g 100 g-1
, 0.407 ± 0.018 mg g-1
,
0.235 ± 0.016 mg g-1 and 13.28 ± 0.08 lg g-1
, respectively. During storage (18 days at 6–8 C), the L. acidophilus count reached 8.83 ± 0.11 log CFU mL-1 with
103.03% increase in the viability by day three and the
yogurt retained 71.5% carotenoids. The probiotc Spirulina
yogurt was found to be acceptable to consumers as evaluated by affective consumer test.