Incorporation of UCO-979C with Anti- and Immunomodulatory Activities in Various Ice Cream Bases.

UCO-979C is a probiotic strain possessing anti- and immunomodulatory activity. The aim of this work was to examine if this strain maintains its probiotic properties and its viability when added to dairy-based ice creams (cookies and cream, Greek yogurt, and chocolate with brownie) or to fruit-based ice creams (pineapple and raspberry) stored at -18 °C for 90 days. The probiotic anti- activity using the well diffusion test, its immunomodulatory activity was measured using transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-β) cytokine production by human gastric adenocarcinoma (AGS) cells, and its viability was measured using the microdrop technique. Assays were performed in triplicate. The UCO-979C strain maintained strong anti- activity in dairy-based ice creams and mild activity in fruit-based ice cream. The production of pro-inflammatory cytokine TGF-β on AGS cells was higher in the probiotic recovered from Greek yogurt ice cream, maintaining a viability exceeding 10 colony-forming units/mL. The addition of the probiotic to ice creams did not significantly influence the physicochemical properties of the product. These data show the great potential of the UCO-979C strain in producing probiotic dairy-based and fruit-based ice creams.