Development of probiotic beverage using whey and pineapple (Ananas comosus) juice: Sensory and physico-chemical properties and probiotic survivability during in-vitro gastrointestinal digestion

The study was investigated to develop a fermented probiotic beverage using whey from Chhana (milk curds) production and pineapple juice. Four variants of drinks were prepared by blending whey and pineapple juice and coded as A (0:100), B (15:85), C (25:75) and D (35:65), and each blends have 8% sugar. The whey and pineapple juice blends were amended based on sensory and physico-chemical evaluation. The probiotic starter culture used was Lactobacillus acidophilus LA-5 (ATCC 4356). The blend of 25% whey and 75% pineapple juice was fermented for 5 h at 37 °C presented the maximum overall acceptability scores from sensorial analysis. The blends shelf-life was investigated in response to sensory evaluation, acidity, phase separation, and probiotic cell viability. The results revealed that the probiotic whey-pineapple beverage could be preserved for 42–56 days at 4 °C with satisfactory acceptability and shelf-life. The viable probiotic cell counts in the beverage after 42 and 56 days were 4.92 Log10 CFU mL−1 and 4.20 Log10 CFU mL−1, respectively. Survivability of the probiotic culture in the beverage during in vitro gastrointestinal digestion was more than 80% during the preservation period of 56 days. This study showed that a probiotic beverage of pineapple juice and whey, a by-product from Chhana production, may have good functional and nutritional qualities for human consumption.