Development of probiotic gummy candy using the indigenous Lactobacillus
plantarum Dad-13 strain; evaluation of its gastrointestinal resistance and shelflife prediction
Nowadays, functional food especially probiotic products have gained more interest, and gummy candy L. plantarum Dad-13 is an innovation. However, the efficacy of probiotics relies on their viable cells and resistance in the gastrointestinal tract. Therefore, this research aimed to evaluate the gastrointestinal resistance and probiotic cells' shelf life and investigate gummy probiotics' characteristics. A market survey was carried to understand the consumer's knowledge on the health benefit of probiotics and their product, also intend to buy the product. Gastrointestinal simulation with pepsin and the pancreatic enzyme was conducted to evaluate the gastrointestinal tract's probiotic resistance, probiotic shelf life was evaluated with the Accelerated Shelf-life Test (ASLT). Proximate analysis was carried out according to the Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC), and physical characteristics were analysed before and after 90 days of storage at 4oC. The result showed that the supplementation of L. plantarum Dad-13 in the gummy probiotic had an excellent survival during gastrointestinal system simulation with the predicted shelf life was 75.17 days or 2.5 months at 4oC of storage. However, the moisture content of gummy probiotics was more than 20%. Considering the survival of L. plantarum Dad13 during gastrointestinal simulation, it can be concluded that gummy probiotics can be used as a carrier for L. plantarum Dad-13.