The physical protection of probiotics by microencapsulation is a new approach to improve the probiotic survival. Encapsulation helps to isolate the bacterial cells from the effects of the hostile environment and gastrointestinal tract, thus potentially preventing cell loss. To some extent, Kebary, Hussein, and Badawi (1998) have shown that Bifidobacterium spp. survive in high numbers in frozen ice milk in beads made from alginate than those made from k-car- rageenan. Shah and Ravula (2000) reported that the survival of probiotic bacteria in fermented frozen desserts improved with encapsulation. Encapsulation thus may enhance the shelf-life of probiotic cultures in frozen dairy products.
It was reported that ice cream can serve as a good carrier for delivering probiotic bacteria to consumers (Akin et al., 2007; Haynes & Playne 2002; Hekmat & McMahon 1992; Kailasapathy
& Sultana, 2003), however, survival of free and microencapsulated Lactobacillus casei (Lc-01) and Bifidobacterium lactis (Bb-12) in synbiotic ice cream containing resistant starch as a prebiotic substance has not yet been reported. Furthermore, no reports were found in the literature about the sensory properties of such product. There- fore the objectives of this study were to evaluate the feasibility of incorporating resistant starch into bead coating and icecream formulation and to investigate the survival of microencapsulated and free cultures in ice cream over a period of 180 days storage at 20 C