Microencapsulation by spray drying of a functional product with mixed juice of acerola and ciriguela fruits containing three probiotic lactobacilli

Microencapsulation of probiotic bacteria with fruit juice can be a good alternative for new probiotic foodstuff production mainly for people with galactosemia and lactose intolerance. The aim of this study was to encapsulate three probiotic bacteria, namely Lactobacillus rhamnosus, Lactobacillus casei and Lactobacillus plantarum, with a 40:60% (w/w) mixed juice of acerola and ciriguela by spray drying at air inlet temperature of 140 °C, 0.60 L/h feed flow rate and 10% (w/w) maltodextrin, as well as to evaluate the influence of maltodextrin dextrose equivalent (DE) value (5, 10 and 15) on microcapsules’ properties. Powders produced were characterized in terms of cell viability counts before and after microencapsulation, physicochemical property analyses and sensory properties. Although spray drying caused a reduction of 2 decimal logarithm units in the number of viable cells, all powders had probiotic cell counts higher than that required for probiotic foods (106 CFU/g). All the three maltodextrins tested were feasible to obtain powders with satisfactory probiotic viability, physicochemical and sensory properties, thereby demonstrating that they are promising materials to microencapsulate probiotic bacteria in fruit juices.