Journal of Integrative Agriculture 2018, 17(1): 247–255

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

ScienceDirect

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Effects of different drying methods on quality, bacterial viability

and storage stability of probiotic enriched apple snacks

CUI Li1, NIU Li-ying1, LI Da-jing1, LIU Chun-quan1, LIU Ying-ping2, LIU Chun-ju1, SONG Jiang-feng1

1
Institute of Farm Product Processing, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing 210014, P.R.China
2
College of Food Science and Engineering, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225127, P.R.China

Abstract
Effects of four different drying methods on the colour, texture, sensory quality, microstructure, bacterial viability and storage
stability of probiotic-enriched apple snacks were assessed. The drying methods were air drying (AD), freeze drying (FD),
freeze drying followed by microwave vacuum drying (FD+MVD) and air drying followed by explosion puffing drying (AD+EPD).
Overall, FD+MVD can be used as a suitable drying method for the development of probiotic enriched apple snacks in
consideration of colour, texture, sensory quality, bacterial viability and storage stability. Probiotic bacteria in FD+MVD-dried
samples remained above 1×106 CFU g–1 for 120 days at 25°C. Interestingly, bacterial viability in FD+MVD-dried samples
turned out to be significantly higher than FD-dried samples during storage for 120 days.

Keywords: drying, apple snacks, probiotic viability, microwave vacuum

Currently, industrial probiotic foods mainly belong to dairy

1. Introduction
Probiotics are defined as live microorganisms which when
administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit
on the host (FAO and WHO 2006).
Regular consumption of viable probiotics can confer a
number of health benefits such as a reduction of cholesterol
(Nguyen et al. 2007), anti-diabetic properties (Yadav et al.
2007), improvement of lactose tolerance (Shah 2007), and
immune system stimulation (De Moreno de LeBlanc et al.
2008).
Received 18 January, 2017 Accepted 30 June, 2017
CUI Li, E-mail: clisu1@163.com; Correspondence LI Da-jing, Tel/
Fax: +86-25-84391255, E-mail: lidajing@163.com
© 2018 CAAS. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. All rights
reserved.
doi: 10.1016/S2095-3119(17)61742-8
products, they have the disadvantages and side effects.
With the increased awareness of the relationship between
fruit and health, healthier fruit snacks with good taste and
probiotics will be in high demand globally.
Many drying methods are used in the food industry to
remove moisture from fresh fruits and vegetables in the
production of shelf-stable products. Freeze drying (FD)
has been widely used to obtain high quality and high-value
dehydrated fruit and vegetables. But expensive and very
slow dehydration process is its major drawback (Huang
et al. 2009). Therefore, it is desirable to evaluate new
drying technologies to achieve better product quality and
more reasonable cost. Microwave drying is a rapid drying
method resulting in products with unique characteristics
while retaining fine quality (Wang et al. 2004, 2007;
Zhang et al. 2006; Clary et al. 2007). Several different
combination drying methods of freeze drying and microwave
drying were used to save energy and consumption of FD
method. For example, freeze drying followed by microwave
248 CUI Li et al. Journal of Integrative Agriculture 2018, 17(1): 247–255
vacuum drying (FD+MVD) and microwave vacuum drying
followed by freeze drying (MVD+FD) (Hang et al. 2012).
FD+MVD was consisted of freeze drying food particulates
to a moisture content of about 35%, and following a short
microwave treatment. This method can plasticize crunchy
and fragile freeze dried fruits and vegetables (Litvin et al.
1998). So, FD+MVD has been proved to be an alternative
method of drying to obtain high-quality dehydrated fruits and
vegetables, which were comparable with freeze dried ones
in chemical properties (carotene and vitamin C retention)
and physical properties (colour, texture, and rehydration
ratio) (Cui et al. 2008).
Pei et al. (2014) used freeze drying (FD) and three
different combinations of drying methods: freeze drying
combined with hot air drying (FD+AD), freeze drying
combined with vacuum drying (FD+VD) and freeze drying
combined with microwave vacuum drying (FD+MVD) to dry
button mushroom slices. They concluded that FD+MVD
method has advantages in terms of efficiency and energy
saving and could be preferred to produce high-quality
products.
Noorbakhsh et al. (2013) evaluated the changes of
survival of bacteria, total titratable acidity and sensory
evaluation of apple slices dried with FD, air drying followed
by radiant energy under vacuum drying (AD+REV), and
AD during or after storage at 25°C for 30 days. Radiant
energy under vacuum (REV) is a form of vacuum
microwave dehydration. They concluded that AD+REV
(same as AD+MVD) is a suitable candidate to produce
probiotic-enriched dried apple. Hot air drying (AD) is the
simplest and popular drying method, but it leads to a large
deformation of the products and also thermally-induced
deterioration (Ratti 2001; Mujumdar 2004). In our previous
research, we also found that AD+MVD apple snacks had
large deformation, which gave an unacceptably poor
quality product. This result is in agreement with that
of Wang et al. (2017), who reported that FD+MVD okra
crisp bar showed more crispness and less shrinkage than
AD+MVD ones.
This study aimed at developing protocols for producing
probiotic-enriched apple snacks with quality comparable or
superior to those of AD+MVD ones.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Cultivation of microorganisms
Lactobacillus plantarum SICC 1.376 was obtained from
the Southwest Center of Industrial Culture Collection in
China (SICC), and used in the experiments. The stock
culture was maintained on MRS agar (Beijing Land Bridge
Technology Co., Ltd., Beijing, China) slants at 4°C. The
lactic acid bacterium was cultivated in 100 mL (200 mL in
some cases) of MRS broth (Beijing Land Bridge Technology
Co., Ltd., Beijing, China) in a 250-mL (or 500-mL) flask at
37°C for 12 h, and the final culture growth generally ranged
from 3.43×109 to 4.23×1010 CFU mL–1. The cultures used
in all experiments were freshly prepared using the same
procedure.
2.2. Sample preparation
Apples (cultivar Fuji) were bought from a local market and
stored at 4°C for 24 h before use. Apples were washed,
peeled, de-cored and cut into square-shaped samples with
(10±0.2) mm length following their vertical axis. Apple cubes
were steam blanched for 2 min and were cooled.
2.3. Vacuum impregnation of probiotic
Apple samples’ vacuum impregnation were performed
according to Noorbakhsh et al. (2013) and Cui et al. (2017)
with some modifications.
Lyophilized cultures were grown on MRS broth. The cells
were harvested by centrifugation at 4 800 r min–1 at 4°C for
10 min and were washed twice with sterile 0.85% saline
solution. Washed cells were transferred into impregnation
liquid, which was sucrose solution.
The vacuum impregnation with the impregnation liquid
obtained from the above procedure was performed at 35°C
in the glass vacuum-pressure desiccato. Apple cubes were
submerged into the impregnation solution in a ratio of 1:2 (w/w)
placed in desiccato exposing to vacuum pressure of 0.09
MPa for 15 min. Then atmospheric pressure was restored
leaving samples under the liquid for an additional 20 min.
2.4. Drying of probiotic-enriched apple snacks
Probiotic impregnated apple cubes were dried with AD, FD,
FD+MVD and AD+EPD in triplicate.
Air drying (AD) Apple cubes (100 g) were dried at 40°C for
12 h in the cabinet air drier. The moisture content of apple
cubes at the end of air drying was (2.96±0.2)%.
Freeze drying (FD) Apple cubes (100 g) were first frozen
at (−28±3)°C, and FD was performed in a lab-scale freeze
dryer (FD-1A-50, Beijing Boyikang Laboratory Instruments
Co., Ltd., China) at −50°C with a chamber pressure of 15 Pa
for 30 h until constant weight was obtained with (3.83±0.2)%
water content.
Air drying followed by explosion puffing drying
(AD+EPD) Apple cubes (100 g) were pre-dried at 40°C for
3 h in the cabinet air drier. The moisture content of apple
cubes at the end of air drying was (17.32±0.2)%. The
drying process was finished using the electric heating air
 CUI Li et al. Journal of Integrative Agriculture 2018, 17(1): 247–255
flow expanding equipment (QDPH-5L; Tanjing Qinde New
Material Technology Co., Ltd., Tanjing, China)
The puffing processes were as follows. First, in the puffing
chamber, the samples were placed on a stainless steel grid
and the decompression valve was closed. The samples
were indirectly heated to 80°C by the steam generator and
maintained at this temperature for 15 min. During sample
heating, the puffing chamber was inflated to an absolute
pressure of 0.1 MPa by the air compressor, and the vacuum
chamber was evacuated to –0.09 MPa by the vacuum pump.
In the depressurizing treatments, the absolute pressure was
decreased from 0.1 to –0.09 MPa in the puffing chamber
by opening the decompression valve. The temperature
of the puffing chamber decreased from 80 to 65°C. The
puffed samples were vacuum-dried for 90 min under these
conditions, yielding puffed apple cubes. All of the parameters
were determined by preliminary studies.
Freeze drying followed by microwave vacuum drying
(FD+MVD) Apple cubes (100 g) were first frozen at
(−28±2)°C, and FD was performed in a lab-scale freeze
dryerat −50°C with a chamber pressure of 15 Pa for 10 h
until constant weight was obtained with (24.83±0.2)% water
content. A microwave vacuum oven (WZD1S; Nanjing Sanle
Microwave Technology Development Co., Ltd., Nanjing,
China) was used for the microwave vacuum drying process;
6 min at 400 W for three times while absolute pressure was
at 78.8 kPa.
2.5. Enumeration of L. plantarum in dried apple
snacks
Dried apple cubes were powdered and homogenized
in sterile 0.85% saline using laboratory Lab-Blender
(Stomacher 400, Seward Laboratory, London, UK) at
medium speed, for 2 min. Homogenized samples were
serially diluted in 0.85% saline solution and spread over a
standard agar plate (MRS agar). The plates were incubated
at 37°C for 48 h and colonies were counted. The viability
of L. plantarum was expressed as the log10 of the number
of the colony forming units (CFU g–1 (dry basis)).
2.6. L. plantarum location and microstruction of dried
apple snacks
L. plantarum location and microstruction of dried apple cubes
were examined using Scanning Electron Microscopy with
a Zeiss EVO-LS10 SEM (Carl Zeiss Microscopy Limited,
UK). The samples were analyzed to investigate whether
probiotic bacteria had penetrated the apple tissue. The
samples were coated with gold (70 s at 20 mA at 25°C) prior
to imaging. The microscopic images were taken at random
locations within the apple samples and only representative
249
images are shown.
2.7. Sensory evaluation
Triple packages of dried probiotic-enriched apple cubes
were taken for sensory evaluation. The affective test
methodology was used, in which 20 trained panelists
described the texture, flavour, colour, taste and overall
acceptability of the samples, based on the 10 points hedonic
scale with 10 being extremely good and one being extremely
poor. Each panelist was asked to read and sign an informed
consent form. A score equal to five was used as a minimum
threshold for satisfactory acceptability.
2.8. Determination of physicochemical characteris-
tics
Physical and chemical properties were measured using
five wedges per replicate of treated and control samples.
Colour and hardness were measured first as described
below. Samples were then homogenized for subsequent
measurements.
Measurement of hardness The hardness of dried apple
cubes was measured as the stress at the maximum
force using a puncture test. The stress at the maximum
force is related to the hardness of the apple cubes. The
measurements were performed in a texture analyzer CT3
(Brookfield Ltd., MA, USA) at a constant speed of 1.0 mm
s–1 using a cylindrical puncture probe 4 mm in diameter (TA-
44). The texture was determined by punching the center
of each cube. The maximum force values were recorded
in gram. During compression experiments, cross-head
speed was 2.5 mm min–1. Before each experiment, a
randomly chosen single apple cube dried under the given
conditions was placed on the bottom parallel plate and
compressed. Compression experiments were performed
in 15 replications. The averaged force and energy required
to cause 3.0 and 5.5 mm deformation, respectively, were
determined on the basis of force-deformation curves.
Measurement of colour The Hunter colour L*, a*, and b*
values were determined by grinding samples into powder
using a colour difference meter (WSCS; SHENGUANG,
Shanghai Precision Scientific Instrument Co., Ltd.,
Shanghai, China). The information given by L*, a* and b*
is generally expressed as the total colour of apple samples,
with positive L* values representing the brightness and
negative values representing dullness, a* for redness to
greenness, and b* for yellowness to blueness.
2.9. Storage of dried probiotic-enriched apple snacks
Dried apple cubes ((2±0.2) g) were placed in individual
250 CUI Li et al. Journal of Integrative Agriculture 2018, 17(1): 247–255
aluminum foil bags, flushed with nitrogen prior to sealing.
Packages were divided into two groups and stored at 25°C
for up to 120 days. Duplicate packages from each dried
samples were taken at time intervals and the number of
surviving bacteria was enumerated.
2.10. Statistical analysis
Results were reported as means±SD for three replications.
In all experiments, one-way analysis of variance in
combination with Tukey’s test for individual comparisons
was performed. All statistical calculations were made at
the P<0.05 level using 2005 SAS (version 9.1; SAS Institute
Inc., Cary, NC, USA).
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Survival and location of L. plantarum in dried
apple snacks
Bacterial counts of dried apple samples showed that the
population of survived L. plantarum was greatly affected
by drying methods (Fig. 1). The reduction of the bacterial
population in FD-dried samples was 0.79-log, while the
reduction of FD+MVD, AD, and AD+EPD was 1.21-, 1.83-
and 5.38-log, respectively. Above results showed that
FD+MVD was competitive with FD in protecting bacteria
during dehydration. FD has been widely used to obtain
high-quality and high-value dehydrated fruit and vegetables
(Huang et al. 2009). However, it is an expensive and very
slow dehydration process. To achieving same moisture
content, the time of FD needed (36 h) was almost twice
than that of FD+MVD (18.5 h).
It is recommended that probiotic cultures must be
12
10
Log10 CFU g–1
8
6 four drying treatment. After AD, apple cubes exhibited severe
4
2 dried apple cubes were similar to that of the AD dried ones,
0
AD AD+EPD FD FD+MVD
Fig. 1 The number of Lactobacillus plantarum in probiotic-
enriched apple cubes after four dehydration methods. AD,
air drying; AD+EPD, air drying followed by explosion puffing
drying; FD, freeze drying; FD+MVD, freeze drying followed by
microwave vacuum drying. Data are means±SD.
present at sufficiently high numbers in the products.
Although the minimum therapeutic dose remains unclear,
the concentration of 1×106–7 CFU g–1 or mL of products was
typically proposed (Shah et al. 2000). Since bacterial counts
of AD+EPD-dried samples are below 1×106–7 CFU g–1, it is
obvious that AD+EPD is not suitable for drying probiotic
rich apple cubes.
Results of scanning electron microscopy (SEM)
confirmed the presence of rod-shaped bacteria being
embedded in the apple cells spaces of all samples
(Fig. 2-A–D). Similar observations were reported. In these
cases, fruit (apple, guava and papaya) pieces were vacuum
impregnated with Lactobacillus (Lactobacillus rhamnosus
CECT 245, Lactobacillus casei 01, Lactobacillus
rhamnosus CECT 275 and L. rhamnosus ATCC 7469)
solution, the cells imbibed in the intercellular spaces of
fruit (Betoret et al. 2003; Krasaekoopt and Suthanwong
2008; Puente et al. 2009; Noorbakhsh et al. 2013). If apple
samples were just dipped in probiotic solution, cells can
only be observed on the surface of apple samples. No
bacteria were seen neither within cells nor at intercellular
junctions (Rößle et al. 2010).
3.2. Measurement of appearance
Drying methods significantly effected the appearance of
probiotic-enriched apple snacks (Fig. 3-A–D). FD+MVD-
dried samples have natural yellow colour of dried apple.
Their appearance showed no brown, no shrinkage and
little puffing. Compared with FD+MVD-dried samples, the
appearance of FD-dried samples showed no difference,
unless their colour were white, like the colour of fresh apple.
It can be seen from Fig. 4-C and D that there are marked
sag and brown in the middle of the AD- and AD+EPD-dried
samples. It is obvious, AD and AD+EPD couldn’t achieve
the acceptable level of snack products. So, both of them
were not suitable for drying probiotic-enriched apple cubes.
3.3. Measurement of microstructure
Fig. 4 showed SEM images which were obtained after the
tissue shrinkage and collapse. There were almost no open
structures (Fig. 4-C and G). The structure of the AD+EPD-
except that a small amount of open structure could still be
observed (Fig. 4-D and H). Honeycomb network structure
of closely connected, and puffed cells were observed in
FD- and FD+MVD-dried samples (Fig. 4-A and E; B and
F). The tissues of FD+MVD-dried samples were observed
to be more porous than FD-dried samples, possibly as a
result of microwave puffing. Because of the rapid drying
 CUI Li et al. Journal of Integrative Agriculture 2018, 17(1): 247–255 251

A B

C D

Fig. 2 The location of Lactobacillus plantarum in apple cubes dried by four dehydration methods using scanning electron microscopy
(SEM). A, freeze drying (FD). B, freeze drying followed by microwave vacuum drying (FD+MVD). C, air drying (AD). D, air drying
followed by explosion puffing drying (AD+EPD).

A B and thinner than those of the FD+MVD-dried samples.

3.4. Sensory evaluation

The quality attributes of snacks would have a desirable

C D
Fig. 3 Appearance of apple cubes dried by four dehydration
methods. A, freeze drying (FD). B, freeze drying followed by
microwave vacuum drying (FD+MVD). C, air drying (AD). D,
air drying followed by explosion puffing drying (AD+EPD).
rate of the MVD-dried samples, the water inside the cells
rapidly evaporated during microwave treatment and the
vapor pressure increased, causing cell wall rupture. Thus,
the porous tissues of the FD+MVD-dried samples were
more obvious than those in FD-dried samples. The cell
walls of FD-dried samples looked comparatively smoother
appearance, texture, taste, colour and enough probiotic.
Considering the appearance evaluation and probiotic
concentration, AD and AD+EPD were not suitable for drying
probiotic-enriched apple cubes. In following, we focused
on FD and FD+MVD methods.
The results of sensory evaluation of products at time
zero demonstrated that the average acceptance of the two
samples was above the average value set of five. The value
of FD+MVD-dried samples is better than FD-dried samples
in texture, colour, flavour and overall.
Most of panelists stated that FD+MVD-dried samples
were more crisp than FD-dried samples (Fig. 5-A). The
results of microstructure were in accordance with the
sensory evaluation of texture. The cell walls of freeze-
dried samples looked smoother and thinner than those
of the FD+MVD-dried samples, explaining the noncrisp
and spongy texture obtained by the freeze-dried apple
chips (Sham et al. 2001). Panelists also described that
the colour of FD+MVD-dried samples showed yellow and
FD-dried samples showed white. So, the yellow colour
makes FD+MVD-dried samples looked more natural and
252 CUI Li et al. Journal of Integrative Agriculture 2018, 17(1): 247–255

A B

C D

E F

G H

Fig. 4 The microstrcture of apple cubes dried by four dehydration methods (magnification of the microscope is 20 in A–D and 100
in E–H) using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). A and E, freeze drying (FD). B and F, freeze drying followed by microwave
vacuum drying (FD+MVD). C and G, air drying (AD). D and H, air drying followed by explosion puffing drying (AD+EPD).

attractive than FD-dried samples. Sensory properties of
the FD+MVD- and FD-dried samples remained above the
acceptable level at 25°C after 120 days (Fig. 5-B).
3.5. Measurement of hardness
Among the quality attributes of snacks, texture are important
quality attributes. For snack chips, crispness is identified as
very important driver of consumers’ choices. Hardness and
porous structure is often used for measure crispness. The
hardness of the FD+MVD-dried samples was significantly
higher compared with FD-dried samples (Table 1), possibly
because little damage was induced in apple by FD, resulting
in an integrated but very thin cell wall. This thin cell wall had
 CUI Li et al. Journal of Integrative Agriculture 2018, 17(1): 247–255 253

FD FD+MWD
A B
Flavour Flavour
10 10
8 8
6 6
4 Colour 4 Overal
Colour Overal
2 2
0 0

Taste Texture Taste Texture

Fig. 5 Sensory evaluation of FD (freeze drying) and FD+MVD (freeze drying followed by microwave vacuum drying) samples. A,
time zero. B, after 120 days of storage at 25°C.

Table 1 Effect of FD (freeze drying) and FD+MVD (freeze drying followed by microwave vacuum drying) on the colour and texture
of probiotic enriched apple cubes
Drying treatments L* a* b* Hardness (g)
FD+MVD 76.87±0.37 a 1.64±0.34 a 23.68±0.70 a 1 054.3±49.3 a
FD 72.42±0.63 b 1.50±0.35 a 23.95±0.77 a 748.6±68.7 b
Data are means±SD. Different letters at the same column mean significantly difference (P<0.05) between FD+MVD and FD.

a poor ability to resist external forces, leading to reduced FD FD+MVD

9
hardness compared with samples dried using FD+MVD 8
(Jiang et al. 2015). 7
6
Log10 CFU g–1

3.6. Measurement of colour
The results of sensory evaluation and instrumental
assessment of FD+MVD- and FD-dried samples’ colour
were not consistent. FD+MVD-dried samples have yellow
colour and FD-dried samples showed white. We expected
that FD-dried samples had the higher lightness and lower
yellow. But the L* of FD-dried samples is lower and the b* is
not lower than FD+MVD-dried samples. This phenomenon
should be because of the microwave process of FD+MVD
form a tough, leathery skin on the surface of the samples
(Hanson 1976). The skin makes the external and internal
colour of FD+MVD-dried samples different. So, it is possible
that after grinding samples into powder, the difference of
colour between FD+MVD- and FD-dried samples was not
significant.
3.7. Survival and vitality of the embedded probiotic
bacterias during storage at 25°C
FD- and FD+MVD-dried samples were stored at 25°C
for 120 days. Microbial content of these samples were
evaluated during storage. Results were shown in Fig. 6.
The bacterial population of storage at 0 day was 8.05
log10 CFU g–1 for FD+MVD-dried samples and 7.99 log10
CFU g–1 for FD-dried samples. After 120 days storage at
5
4
3
2
1
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
Time (d)
Fig. 6 The storage stability of Lactobacillus plantarum in
apple cubes dried by FD (freeze drying) and FD+MVD (freeze
drying followed by microwave vacuum drying) at 25°C. Data
are means±SD.
25°C, 7.03 log10 CFU g–1 bacterial population was detected
in FD+MVD-dried samples while in freeze dried samples
survival it was 6.35 log10 CFU g–1. The log reduction in the
bacterial population was 1.02 and 1.64, for FD+MVD and
FD-dried samples, respectively.
In other word, one log reduction in the bacterial population
in FD+MVD-dried samples at 25°C occurred after 120 days
of storage. The bacterial population of these results are
significant higher than that reported by Noorbakhsh et al.
(2013), who performed a shelf life study on AD+MVD-dried
apples, enriched with Lactobacillus rhamnosus and reported
one log reduction after 23 days of storage at 25°C.
The higher survival of bacteria in FD+MVD-dried apple
samples compared to FD-dried samples during the storage
254 CUI Li et al. Journal of Integrative Agriculture 2018, 17(1): 247–255
at 25°C may be related to following factors, such as heat
stress of probiotic bacteria, apple matrix and titrable acidity.
Factors influencing the stability of probiotics in apple
samples can be categorized into three areas including
formulation factors (strains of probiotic bacteria and
microbial interactions, pH and titrable acidity, oxygen
content, moisture content, food ingredients and additives),
process factors (incubation temperature, heat treatment,
types of inoculation, and storage temperature), and
packaging materials and systems (Tripathi and Giri 2014).
Heat stress is known to produce heat-shock proteins
(HSPs) in many bacterial strains (Anekella and Orsat
et al. 2013; Barbosa et al. 2015). Thus, HSPs inducing by
microwave vacuum drying can potentially work a role on
survival of probiotic during storage.
Survival of probiotics during storage is considerably
affected by pH and titratable acidity of the products
(Mortazavian et al. 2010). Lactobacilli are capable of
growing and surviving in fermented products with pH values
between 3.7 and 4.3 (Boylston et al. 2004). The total
titratable acidity in the freeze dried samples was significant
higher than that in the AD+REV-dried samples after 180
days of storage at 25°C (Noorbakhsh et al. 2013). The
higher survival of bacteria in AD+REV-dried apple samples
compared to FD-dried samples during the storage at 25°C
may be related to the total titratable acidity. Therefore,
further studies should be addressed to assessing the
titratable acidity in both FD+MVD- and FD-dried apple
samples during the storage at 25°C.
Microwave pretreatment leads to destructive changes
in the plant tissue (Sham et al. 2001; Huang et al. 2012).
Powers higher than 900 W produced greater tissue
microstructural damage due to alteration of the cell wall
network (Latorre et al. 2013). The intermolecular friction
produced by microwave heating may cause internal
cell pressure leading to rupture resulting in a loss of
cell contents and organization. The rupture maybe has
the effect of microencapsulation of probiotic cells. The
knowledge of the structure and chemical composition
may help to highlight the modifications that occur during
microwave processing.
4. Conclusion
It becomes clear from our findings that FD+MVD is a better
candidate to produce probiotic-enriched dried apple snacks
with more bacterial stability at room temperature and better
sensory acceptation, such as crispness and colour, compared
with FD. FD+MVD surely has economic advantages over
freeze drying due to shorter process time and reduced energy
demand. FD+MVD was superior to AD+MVD in protecting
bacteria during storage at 25°C for 120 days.
Acknowledgements
This research was financially supported by the Key Projects
in the Jiangsu Province Key Research & Development
Program, China (BE 2016363).
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Section editor WANG Qiang
Managing editor WENG Ling-yun