Research Projects

This study aims to convert fruit and vegetable waste into prebiotic materials, prepare prebiotic powders, evaluate their prebiotic potential, incorporate probiotics and micronutrient encapsulates with prebiotic printing material, standardize 3D printability, and optimize the printing process. The process involves collecting and drying waste materials, powdering them, and evaluating their properties. Probiotics will be procured from an international collection of cultures, mixed with prebiotic printing material, and the printability of the feed material in 3D printing will be optimized. The flow behavior of the synbiotic printing material will be studied using a parallel plate rheometer, and the strength of the synbiotic mixture will be studied. The printing process and post-processing will be optimized to maintain probiotic viability even after post-processing. Simulated in vitro digestion studies will evaluate the gastric acid and bile salt resistance of probiotics in 3D printed synbiotic foods. Functional properties of probiotics and micronutrients will be evaluated, including adhesion to mucus and human epithelial cells, antagonistic activity against potential pathogenic bacteria, and ability to reduce pathogen aggregation to surfaces.