Survival of Lactobacillus pentosus 3G3 in Home-made Chocolate bars

Abstract

Commercial interest in probiotic food products has recently increased due to a growing understanding of its beneficial effects for human health. Lactobacillus pentosus 3G3, a potential probiotic, is a strain that was proven to manage body weight, control lipid absorption and reduce cholesterol. Chocolate, on the other hand, is regarded as a suitable medium for preserving probiotics and a good carrier for their delivery to the intestine for it contains cocoa fat which protectively coats bacteria. This study aims to monitor and compare the survival of Lactobacillus pentosus 3G3 in different types of home-made chocolate bars (milk chocolate, dark chocolate and white chocolate) stored at low temperature (4°C) and room temperature. It also aims to assess the acceptability of the probiotic chocolate bars using an organoleptic test. Miles and Misra method was used to determine microbial counts in the different treatments. Monitoring was done two times a week for 28 days. Results show that white chocolate is the most suitable substrate for 3G3 followed by milk chocolate, and lastly, dark chocolate. The different compositions of the three substrates may account for the difference in the optimum growth of the probiotic. Lactobacillus pentosus 3G3 also prefers low temperature storage condition as evidenced by a decreasing trend in population when stored at room temperature. Organoleptic test shows that there is no difference between the acceptability of the inoculated and uninoculated bars. In summary, chocolate is indeed a suitable medium for Lactobacillus pentosus 3G3 and may be considered a potential functional food to address lifestyle-associated diseases.