Development of innovative fermented beverages and “yogurt”-type gels with immunomodulatory properties from almond and/or chickpea milk analogues

International audience

Inglés. Mediterranean nuts and legumes offer opportunities to diversify fermented products and to gradually move towards a more plant-based diet. Developing alternative fermented products to those derived from milk, requires selecting i) appropriate plant-based resources and ii) bacteria able to ferment them and provide adequate final sensory and probiotic properties. Among the different nuts and legumes studied in the European LOCALNUTLEG project, almond milk analogue was chosen for preparing fermented beverages, as well as mixes of almond and chickpea milk analogues for preparing yogurt-type analogues. Different strains of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and propionic acid bacteria (PAB) were tested. Streptococcus thermophilus CIRM-BIA772, Lacticaseibacillus casei CIRM-BIA1643, Lactobacillus helveticus CIRM-BIA100 and Propionibacterium freudenreichii CIRM-BIA141 were selected. The carbohydrates were fermented by the LAB and probiotic properties were provided by both L. casei and P. freudenreichii in beverages and by L. helveticus in yogurt analogues. Sensory analyses were performed on the fermented beverages by free choice profiling technique. The fermented beverages and yogurt analogues with various almond-chickpea ratios, were deeply characterized by targeted metabolites content (organic acids, residual sugar, peptides and amino acids), and immunomodulatory properties. These latter were evaluated by changes in the production of IL-8 in intestinal human epithelial cells, after a challenge with the different fermented products, in the presence and in the absence of an inflammatory stress. The texture of the yogurt analogues was characterized by rheological measurements. The fermented beverages were differently perceived by consumers, regarding the presence of the two LAB strains and of the LAB and PAB strains and addition or not of sucrose. All the fermented beverages had immunomodulatory properties, in contrast to the initial vegetable milk analogues. The change in the almond/chickpea ratio resulted in gels that were more consistent with increasing amount of chickpea. The almond/chickpea ratio also influenced the LAB strains growth with higher population observed in 50/50 ratio and higher immunomodulatory properties in 25/75 ratio. These innovative fermented almond beverages and almond/chickpea yogurt analogues can be an alternative to widely consumed fermented plant-based products, with functional properties, and may help diversifying flexitarian and vegetarian consumers’ diets.