A novel non-dairy beverage from durian pulp fermented with selected probiotics and yeast.

This study investigated the effects of sequential inoculation (Seq-I) of Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis or Lactobacillus casei with yeast Williopsis saturnus on durian pulp fermentation. Seq-I of W. saturnus following B. animalis subsp. lactis did not bring about any significant differences compared to the B. animalis subsp. lactis monoculture due to the sharp early death of W. saturnus soon after inoculation. However, Seq-I of W. saturnus significantly enhanced the survival of L. casei and improved the utilization of fructose and glucose compared to L. casei monoculture. In addition, there were significant differences in the metabolism of organic acids especially for lactic acid and succinic acid. Furthermore, Seq-I produced significantly higher levels of volatile compounds including alcohols (ethanol and 2-phenylethyl alcohol) and acetate esters (2-phenylethyl acetate, isoamyl acetate and ethyl acetate), which would positively contribute to the flavour notes. Although the initial volatile sulphur compounds were reduced to trace levels after fermentation, but the durian odour still remained. This study suggests that the use of probiotics and W. saturnus to ferment durian pulp could act as a potential avenue to develop a novel non-dairy durian-based functional beverage to deliver probiotics.