Symbiotic Maple Probiotic Beverage Composition
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing health drinks fail to effectively deliver probiotics and prebiotics to the gastrointestinal tract due to challenges such as ensuring probiotic survival, selecting environment-resistant strains, maintaining organoleptic characteristics, achieving reasonable shelf-life, and overcoming gastrointestinal barriers like bile salts and acidity, particularly with maple sap, concentrate, or syrup as a delivery vehicle.
Innovation Solution
Development of a novel composition comprising maple sap, maple concentrate, or diluted maple syrup combined with probiotics and/or prebiotics, involving sterilization processes to ensure probiotic survival and using specific strains like Lactobacillus rhamnosus and Bifidobacterium lactis Bb12, along with prebiotics like inulin, to create a symbiotic drink with extended shelf-life and improved gastrointestinal survival rates.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If maple sap is used as a delivery vehicle for probiotics, then probiotics can be delivered to the gastrointestinal tract, but probiotic survival is compromised due to the acidic environment and lack of protective factors
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses milk or dairy-based products as an intermediary medium to deliver probiotics. The milk matrix provides protective factors including neutral pH, fat content, and protein content that shield probiotics from the harmful acidic environment of maple sap and the gastrointestinal tract, enabling probiotic survival while still achieving delivery to the target location.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention creates a composite delivery system combining maple sap with milk/dairy products and probiotics. This composite formulation integrates the beneficial properties of maple sap (natural sweetness, hydration) with the protective properties of milk (neutral pH, fat, protein) to create a stable environment that maintains probiotic viability throughout digestion.
2Reliability
If probiotics are inoculated in maple sap, then probiotic delivery is achieved, but shelf-life is reduced due to lack of protective environment
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies beforehand cushioning by incorporating milk proteins and fats into the formulation before probiotic inoculation. These protective components are pre-positioned to cushion and protect probiotics from environmental stresses during storage, maintaining their viability and extending the product shelf-life while ensuring effective delivery.
3Reliability
If probiotic strains are selected for environmental resistance, then probiotic survival improves, but organoleptic characteristics may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs parameter changes by adjusting the pH of the maple sap through addition of milk/dairy components. This parameter modification creates a neutral environment that allows selection of probiotic strains with optimal organoleptic properties rather than requiring extreme environmental resistance, thus maintaining desirable taste and sensory characteristics while achieving adequate probiotic survival.
4Reliability
If maple sap acidity is reduced to support probiotics, then probiotic survival improves, but the natural characteristics of maple sap are altered
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges maple sap with milk or dairy-based products to create a combined delivery system. This merging allows the maple sap to retain its natural composition and characteristics while the added milk components provide the neutral pH and protective environment necessary for probiotic survival, achieving both goals simultaneously without altering the fundamental properties of either ingredient.
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to novel maple product compositions. In particular, the present invention relates to new compositions comprising maple sap, maple concentrate, maple syrup or diluted maple syrup, and probiotics, prebiotics or combinations thereof. The present invention also discloses methods for the production of maple based products, including functional drinks, comprising a composition comprising maple sap, maple concentrate, maple syrup or dilutated maple syrup, and probiotics, prebiotics or combinations thereof, as a vehicle for the delivery of probiotics and prebiotics to the gastrointestinal tract.