UNDER REFRIGERATION STORAGE " (2012). All Theses. Paper 1441. ASSESSMENT OF VIABILITY OF PROBIOTIC BACTERIA IN NON DAIRY FOOD MATRICES UNDER REFRIGERATION STORAGE

ii Functional foods serve nutrients and physiologically active components for a healthy living. In most countries, the products related to having a healthy gut dominate the functional foods market. These products are prebiotics, probiotics and synbiotics. Concerning the health benefits, various probiotics are introduced to food matrices. Though dairy is the ideal food matrix for probiotics, the trend of non-dairy probiotics is growing among consumers. This study included two research objectives: surveying the commercial probiotic containing products for probiotic level and developing a practical home-made probiotic fermentation process. The first part of this study was mainly based on assessing viability of probiotic bacteria in non-dairy matrices. Six commercially available probiotics products were tested to verify the manufacturer compliance with the claimed amount on the labels under refrigeration storage for the recommended shelf life. Five products were non-dairy matrices including both liquid and solid matrices. One was a dairy substrate