UVM Theses and Dissertations
Format:
Print
Author:
Rice, Beth Helen
Dept./Program:
Nutritional and Food Sciences
Year:
2005
Degree:
M.S.
Abstract:
Oats and probiotics are recognized for their health benefits. The objective of this study was to develop an oat-based symbiotic yogurt-like food using whey protein isolate as a gelation agent. A blend of oat flour, sugar, lactose and inulin were cooked in water and sterilized at 121°C for 15 min. Prepolymerized whey proteins were heated to 85°C for 30 min and immediately cooled to room temperature to polymerize the proteins. The mixture of oats and polymerized whey proteins (0.6% w/v) were fermented for 4 h at 43°C with YoFast 10 (0.06% w/v) starter culture and ABC-1 (0.01% w/v) (Chr. Hansen, Milwaukee, WI) in order to form a gel. YoFast 10 contains strains of Streptococcus thermophilus, Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp bulgaricus and/or LactobacJllus delbrueckii subsp, lactis, Lactobaciltus acidophilus, Lactobacillus casei, and Bifidobacterium. ABC-1 contains only the probiotic strains of YoFast 10. The final product had 0.96 ± 0.02 % dietary fiber. The probiotics survived for 10 weeks of storage at 4°C, except for L. acidophilus, which survived for one week. The population of L. casei was 3.14 x 10⁶ to 2.53 x 10⁶ cfu/ml and that of Bifidobacterium was 3.38 x 10⁷ to 1.5 x 10⁵ cfu/ml throughout storage. The yogurt-like food shows that oats can be a good vehicle for functional foods.