Study supports shelf stability of Sabinsa’s probiotic for functional foods

The viability and stability of the strain was tested in a range of products, including waffles, muffins, brewed coffee, chocolate fudge frosting and hot fudge topping, peanut butter and strawberry preserves, vegetable oil/canola oil, apple juice, and concentrated glucose syrup.

Results published in the International Journal of Food Science & Technology​​ indicated that the B. coagulans​ MTCC 5856 strain (LactoSpore) was found to be stable during processing and storage of baked food, while it also retained 87% viability during coffee brewing.

The data also indicated that LactoSpore retained 99% viability in apple juice up to 6 months at 4°C and had over 90% viability in glucose syrup up to 24 months at 40°C.

‘Creating opportunities’​

LactoSpore has been on the market for over 20 years, and emerging science is seeing it move beyond maintaining gut health into sports nutrition, IBS and related gut health conditions.

“The most crucial property that a probiotic can have, to confer health benefits, is demonstrated stability,” ​said Shaheen Majeed, Marketing Director, Sabinsa and one of the authors of the paper. “In this publication, our studies on LactoSpore prove beyond a doubt that our room temperature shelf-stable probiotic can be incorporated in everyday types of formulations. ​

“We're creating more opportunities for our customers with different kinds of probiotic formulations using LactoSpore, which ultimately benefits the consumer.”   ​

Study details​

The scientists report that viability tests in the waffles and banana muffin mix showed no significant reduction in LactoSpore survival during baking, with stability at both high temperatures (baking conditions) and during frozen storage for 12 months.

For the peanut butter, strawberry preserves and vegetable oil tests, 97% viability was retained for up to one year at room temperature, they added.

For the coffee, a viability of 87% was reported after brewing, and this decreased to 66% when the same coffee was stored at 77 °C for 4 hours.

“​B. coagulans MTCC 5856 is a shelf stable, GRAS affirmed, clinically documented probiotic strain,” ​wrote the authors. “​B. coagulans MTCC 5856 has a history of more than two decades of safe and effective use as dietary ingredients in various ranges of products such as capsule, tablets, frozen yoghurt, tutifruiti and recently in bread. The ​B. coagulans spore preparation is currently added to the intended foods at levels of [100 million] to [two billion] cfu/servings. ​

“For the first time, the current study provides detailed stability evidence of ​B. coagulans MTCC 5856 in different range of functional foods (baked goods, beverages, vegetable oil, concentrated glucose syrup and brewed coffee).” ​

Source: International Journal of Food Science & Technology​​
Published online ahead of print, doi: 10.1111/ijfs.13044
“Evaluation of the stability of Bacillus coagulans MTCC 5856 during processing and storage of functional foods”​
Authors: M. Majeed, S. Majeed, K. Nagabhushanam, S. Natarajan, A. Sivakumar, F. Ali