Evaluation of the viability of free and encapsulated lactic acid bacteria using in-vitro gastro intestinal model and survivability studies of synbiotic microcapsules in dry food matrix during storage

•LAB undergoes dormancy in gastric and revives in small intestinal conditions.•Pleurotus ostreatus extract enhances LAB survivability when encapsulated together.•Encapsulation protects LAB from gastrointestinal and high temperature stress.•Dry shelf stable health foods with synbiotic microcapsules are proposed.

Gastro-intestinal tolerance is inevitable for probiotics to allow enough live cell arrival in colon for bestowing their health benefits. The efficiency of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) en route to colon was studied in an in-vitro gastro-intestinal model. The effect of storage on bacterial and synbiotic microcapsules in dry food matrix was studied using Pleurotus ostreatus as the source of prebiotics. Cereal health mix from Tamil Nadu, Indian traditional dry food snack and universal malted health drink were used as the matrices to study the stability of microcapsules in dry formulations. LAB were checked in free and encapsulated forms for tolerance towards stress conditions and encapsulation was found to protect the bacteria and enhance their survival. There was 72%-87% survivability of bacteria in synbiotic microcapsules after storage in dry food matrix. L. bulgaricus NCIM 2056 and L. plantarum NCIM 2083 showed highest level of survivability in the synbiotic microcapsules stored in all the dry food matrices studied. Shelf-stable (not requiring refrigeration) dry probiotic foods would be path breaking products in probiotics industry to overcome the disadvantages of liquid probiotic formulations. The present work is an initiative towards formulation of such product which can be replicated using probiotic LAB.