PROBIOTIC VIABILITY AND GLYCEMIC PROPERTIES OF SYNBIOTIC ENERGY BAR PRODUCED FROM GRAINS AND FRUITS

Abstract

The quest for a creative approach to innovations in food processing to produce revolutionary materials and novel food products that are nutritious, sustainable and functional necessitated this research which explored the probiotic viability of Lactobacillus bulgaricus, glycemic response (glycemic index, glycemic load and glycemic classification of novel synbiotic energy bar formulated from blends of fonio, coconut, tigernut,  peanut, sesame seed and snot apple using gum arabic as binder while inulin was incorporated as prebiotic and fat replacer. The synbiotic energy bars were produced using the conventional method while inoculation, fermentation and sheeting were followed by vacuum drying and packaging. It was observed that the energy bars exhibited highest probiotic viability in week one (79-81%), while the least probiotic viability was observed in week eight (7-9%).There were significant differences at (p˂0.05) in the probiotic viability among the samples after week zero The study also indicated that the glycemic response values were between 46.06-61.32 and 23.03-32.08 for glycemic index and load respectively which differed significantly (p˂0.05) among the samples.