Studies on different polysaccharides used as carrier material for spray-drying of synbiotics and its viability under different storage conditions.

The objective of this study was to investigate the different polysaccharides as carrier material for spray-drying
synbiotics and to study the physicochemical characteristics of synbiotics at different storage conditions. The
thermally acclimatized probiotic strains, Lactobacillus helveticus (H-45) and Lacticaseibacillus casei (N-45) with
enhanced probiotic properties were spray-dried using these polysaccharides along with galactooligosaccharides
(GOS) as prebiotic. The studied plant-based polysaccharides are maltodextrin (MDX), corn starch (CS), and gum
acacia (GA). After spray-drying, the survivability of all synbiotic combinations was higher in the presence of corn
starch as carrier material. The synbiotic combination N45 + GOS + CS showed better survivability during spraydrying,
under simulated intestinal (8.43 ± 0.17 log CFU/g), acid (5.51 ± 0.12 log CFU/g), and bile (7.31 ± 0.04
log CFU/g) conditions. The spray-dried powders had good to moderate flow properties with moisture content and
water activity (aw) at the optimal range for the survival of probiotics. Among the spray-dried powders, synbiotic-
N45 + GOS + CS showed improved storage survivability during shelf-life studies at three different temperatures
(4 ◦C, 30 ◦C, and 37 ◦C) for eight weeks. However, all spray-dried probiotic and synbiotic powders had higher
viability when stored at 4 ◦C. Hence, the study suggests that cornstarch as a polysaccharide in the synbiotics
formulation (N45 + GOS + CS) may have a potential application in functional foods.