Effect of encapsulation and wall material on the probiotic survival and physicochemical properties of synbiotic chewing gum: study with univariate and multivariate analyses

Nowadays, there is an increasing tendency toward using probiotics in different food systems. In this work, probiotic survival, texture features and sensory properties of synbiotic chewing gum containing encapsulated probiotic organisms (Lactobacillus reuteri) were studied. Probiotics were encapsulated using alginate, inulin (0–1%) and lecithin (0–1%). Storage trials showed that, unlike control, the viability of the probiotic in encapsulated samples was retained after 21 days. Probiotic survival was increased by increasing of inulin and lecithin in cell walls. Samples containing encapsulated organisms had different texture parameters compared to the control. Sensory panelists liked the chewing gum with encapsulated lactobacilli. Thus, chewing gum has been shown to be an excellent food for delivery of probiotic lactobacilli. Principal component analysis (PCA) allowed discriminating among probiotics survival and chewing gum specialties. Partial least squares regression (PLSR) models were applied to find out the relationships between sensory and instrumental data.