Development of a new oat-based probiotic drink.

In the present work, a whole-grain oat substrate was fermented with lactic acid bacteria to obtain a drink, combining the health benefits of a probiotic culture with the oat prebiotic beta-glucan. The levels of several factors, such as starter culture concentration, oat flour and sucrose content, affecting the fermentation process, were established for completing a controlled fermentation for 8 h. The viable cell counts reached at the end of the process were about 7.5 x 10(10) cfu ml(-1). It was found that the addition of sweeteners aspartame, sodium cyclamate, saccharine and Huxol (12% cyclamate and 1.2% saccharine) had no effect on the dynamics of the fermentation process and on the viability of the starter culture during product storage. Beta-glucan content in the drink (0.31-0.36%) remained unchanged both throughout fermentation and storage of the drink. The shelf life of the oat drink was estimated to 21 days under refrigerated storage.