FORMULATION AND EVALUATION OF PROBIOTIC CHOCOLATE

Human gut serves as a home to over 100-1000 microbial species, which primarily modulate the host internal environment and thereby, play a major role in host health. Humans are a unique reservoir of heterogeneous and vivacious group of microbes, which together forms the human-microbiome superorganism. Probiotic bacteria are beneficial to human health by improving the gutmicro biota balance and the defenses against pathogens. Additional health benefits attributed to probiotics are the stimulation of the immune system, blood cholesterol reduction, vitamin synthesis etc. Chocolate is mostly a unique food product for all age groups. The addition of lactobacillus to these chocolates thus creates a tastier option for transferring these bacteria to the stomach for the betterment of the microbial environment of the gut. Thus, Lactobacillus and Bifido bacterium were collected from five different samples and introduced into the milk chocolate for the preparation of probiotic milk chocolate. Both the organism was isolated and identified. Their physiochemical properties, sensory attributes and probiotic viability in milk chocolates were assessed. Thus, the study concludes that probiotic milk chocolate can be potentially used as a novel carrier of Lactobacillus and Bifid bacterium with optimum viability and unaltered physiochemical properties.