Effect of cranberry pomace on smoothie properties for the development of functional beverage

Nowadays, the consumption of food products, which are ready to use and contain bioactive compounds, such as dietary fibre, has been increased. Smoothies are smooth consistency beverages, which usually contains fruit or fruit juice. These beverages may also be a suitable matrix for incorporation of probiotics. Cranberry pomace is a good source of dietary fibre and can be used to produce novel foods. Nevertheless, pomace may negatively influence the products’ properties and acceptability. Enzymatic hydrolysis can be used to modify their dietary fibre composition and technological properties. The aim of this study was to evaluate effect of enzymatically hydrolysed cranberry pomace on smoothie properties and probiotic bacteria (Bifidobacterium animalis) viability during 28 days of storage at 4 °C. Two types of smoothies containing 5% of enzymatically treated cranberry pomace and one smoothie without pomace (control) were prepared from banana (10%), apple juice (30%), and water (55%) and supplemented with Bifidobacterium animalis. Pomace was hydrolysed using commercially available Novozyme A/S (Denmark) enzymes: Viscozyme® L and Celluclast® 1.5L. The addition of enzymatically treated pomace affected pH, titratable acidity, colour, sensory properties and reducing sugar content of smoothies. The control smoothie and smoothie prepared with pomace hydrolysed with Celluclast® 1.5L showed higher counts of B. animalis not only at the end of storage, but also after in vitro digestion and can be used as vehicle of these probiotic bacteria during digestion. The obtained results suggested the feasibility of incorporating enzymatically treated cranberry pomace as dietary fibre supplement for formulation of functional beverages containing probiotic bacteria.