One of the ways to improve food safety and reduce community health risks is fortification of these products with inulin. Inulin, in spite of the effects and nutritional benefits, will also have undesirable effects on the quality and shelf life of bread. In this study, the interactions between polyols as improvers (i.e. glycerol, sorbitol and propylene glycol) and major biopolymers of wheat flour (i.e. starch and gluten) were examined in model systems fortified with Serish inulin by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The changes in starch structure were estimated focusing on the ratios of the heights of the bands at 1047 and 1022 cm-1 which expresses the quantity of ordered starch to amorphous starch. At first and 5th days of storage, this ratio of control sample was higher than polyol treated samples. It was proved from Gaussian-Lorenzian curve fitting that the relative contribution of characteristic peaks of β-turns and intramolecular β-sheets was consecutively increased when polyol proportion of models increased. Whereas, content of intermolecular β-sheets and α-helix was slightly decreased with increasing of polyols in the models. Briefly, polyols especially 5% propylene glycol, could be used to reduce the undesirable effects of inulin on the quality parameters of dough and bread.

Nowadays, there is an increasing tendency toward using probiotics in different food systems. In this work, probiotic survival, texture features and sensory properties of synbiotic chewing gum containing encapsulated probiotic organisms (Lactobacillus reuteri) were studied. Probiotics were encapsulated using alginate, inulin (0-1%) and lecithin (0-1%). Storage trials showed that, unlike control, the viability of the probiotic in encapsulated samples was retained after 21 days. Probiotic survival was increased by increasing of inulin and lecithin in cell walls. Samples containing encapsulated organisms had different texture parameters compared to the control. Sensory panelists liked the chewing gum with encapsulated lactobacilli. Thus, chewing gum has been shown to be an excellent food for delivery of probiotic lactobacilli. Principal component analysis (PCA) allowed discriminating among probiotics survival and chewing gum specialties. Partial least squares regression (PLSR) models were applied to find out the relationships between sensory and instrumental data.