Development of Milk Fermented with Lactobacillus acidophilus Fortified with Vitis vinifera Marc Flour

Davide Frumento*, Ana Paula do Espirito Santo, Bahar Aliakbarian, Alessandro Alberto Casazza, Michela Gallo, Attilio Converti and Patrizia Perego

Department of Civil, Chemical and Environmental Engineering (DICCA), University of Genoa, via Opera Pia 15, IT-16145 Genoa, Italy

Article history:
Received November 26, 2012
Accepted May 13, 2013

Key words:
fermented milk, grape marc, Lactobacillus acidophilus, phenolic compounds

Summary:
Some by-products of wine industry still contain nutrients and functional compounds that make them potential ingredients to formulate new high value-added food products. The aim of this study is to develop milk fermented with Lactobacillus acidophilus fortified with marc flour of different cultivars of Vitis vinifera from wine production and to evaluate their influence on fermentation kinetics, probiotic counts, phenolic compounds, sugar content and antioxidant activity. The acidification time was significantly shortened by these enrichments (by up to 2.7h), and the bacterial count during cold storage resulted in stronger fortification of samples (up to 4.13 %) when compared to control tests. Fermented milk containing grape marc showed considerable amounts of phenolic compounds with notable antioxidant activity, as well as significant amounts of total sugars. The most important aspect of this paper is the feasibility of using winery by-products, rich in phenolic compounds, as natural supplements to fortify probiotic-fermented milk.

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