Optimization of incorporated prebiotics as coating materials for probiotic microencapsulation

The purpose of this research was to improve probiotic microencapsulation using prebiotics and modern optimization techniques to determine optimal processing conditions, performance, and survival rates. Prebiotics (fructooligosaccharides or isomaltooligosaccharides), growth promoter (peptide), and sodium alginate were incorporated as coating materials to microencapsulate 4 probiotics (Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus casei, Bifidobacterium bifidum, and Bifidobacterium longum). The proportion of the prebiotics, peptide, and sodium alginate was optimized using response surface methodology (RSM) to 1st construct a surface model, with sequential quadratic programming (SQP) subsequently adopted to optimize the model and evaluate the survival of microencapsulated probiotics under simulated gastric fluid test. Optimization results indicated that 1% sodium alginate mixed with 1% peptide and 3% fructooligosaccharides as coating materials would produce the highest survival in terms of probiotic count. The verification experiment yielded a result close to the predicted values, with no significant difference (P > 0.05). The storage results also demonstrated that addition of prebiotics in the walls of probiotic microcapsules provided improved protection for the active organisms. These probiotic counts remained at 10(6) to 10(7) colony-forming units (CFU)/g for microcapsules stored for 1 mo and then treated in simulated gastric fluid test and bile salt test.