Pediococcus acidilactici as a potential probiotic to be used in food industry

Summary: The objective of this study was to compare the results obtained between a commercial probiotic bacterium and a strain of Pediococcus acidilactici isolated from a food matrix. Besides the characterisation of the isolates, the main focus of this work was to evaluate their ability to survive through simulated gastrointestinal tract passage as well as the effect of the spray drying process to be used as concentrated cultures in the food industry. Both lactic acid bacteria produced any of the virulence determinants investigated; they exhibited no significant antibiotic resistances and <1 log unit reduction in viable counts was obtained after exposure to simulated gastrointestinal tract conditions. Concentrated cultures of P. acidilactici HA-6111-2 in 10% (w/v) of reconstituted skim milk were obtained by spray drying and, after 60 days of storage at 4 °C, <1 log unit reduction in viable count was recorded. In conclusion, from these preliminary characterisation tests and its extended viability in the dried form, this P. acidilactici strain should be considered as a potentially useful probiotic. The probiotic nature of Pediococcus acidilactici HA-6111-2 strain was investigated and results of each characterization test performed were compared with a commercial probiotic. All the prerequisites tested to consider our strain as probiotic were achieved. Pediococcus acidilactici HA-6111-2 survived after spray-drying in reconstituted skim milk and during storage at 4 °C for 60 days, thereby showing to be a potential candidate to be used in the production of functional foods.