Researchers from Spain and Brazil have completed a study that lays the foundation to obtain apple cubes enriched with probiotics, namely Lactobacillus casei.
According to the researchers, the enrichment of foodstuffs with probiotic strains can provide important health benefits. They contribute towards reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes, they have anti-inflammatory potential and protect against colitis, among other benefits.
The researchers studied the use of drying techniques along with ultrasounds in order to enrich apple snacks with the strain.
The researchers applied three temperatures to dry the fruit during their study, 60 degrees being the highest, followed by an intermediate one of 40 and lastly 10 combined, or not, with ultrasounds.
Of the different tests performed, the application of ultrasounds, both for the drying at 60 and 10 degrees, made it possible to obtain a final product which contained a high enough concentration of Lactobacillus to surpass the established threshold to be considered probiotic food.
This study offers positive preliminary results and constitutes a first step in order to obtain fruits enriched with these strains.