Survival of Free and Encapsulated Probiotics in Healthy Gummy Candy as a Carrier for Probiotic Capsules

Probiotic gummy candy is an innovative food that can be used as a carrier to deliver probiotics. This study aimed to manufacture healthy gummy candy (HGC) as a carrier for probiotic capsules. The ingredients' effect on the viability of probiotic capsules and free cells was evaluated for 48 days under refrigerated conditions. Also, the textural properties, overall acceptability of products, and physicochemical properties were tested. The encapsulation probiotics in sodium alginate and chitosan provided a high efficiency of 88.16%. At the same time, the encapsulated cells-based HGC (HGC-C) had higher counts of probiotics than free cells-based HGC, and it remained above the 3 log CFU/g at the end of the 48-day storage period in HGC-C, while the free cells reached zero at 30 days. The HGC product showed a low hardness value and high antioxidant capacity as well as, and the colour coordinates for the product showed more yellow, with an intense red colour. Using mango pulp and probiotics in gummy candies is an innovative and viable alternative to the confectionery industry; therefore, combining fruits as a source of prebiotics and probiotic bacteria could be a promising formula for probiotics gummy supplement preparation.