Coffee mucilage is an underutilized agroindustrial by-product rich in polysaccharides and phenolic compounds with promising potential as a sustainable functional food encapsulating material. Synbiotic yogurt containing spray-dried microcapsules of Saccharomyces boulardii CNCM I-745 formulated with coffee mucilage (CM), inulin (INU), or their combination (CM/INU) was developed as an innovative strategy to combine probiotic delivery with bioactive enhancement in a dairy matrix. The performance of the encapsulation systems was evaluated in terms of physicochemical stability (pH, titratable acidity, syneresis, water-holding capacity, and color), bioactive functionality (reducing-capacity response and antioxidant activity), sensory attributes, and in vitro gastrointestinal survival during storage at 4°C for 21 days. Yogurt containing CM microcapsules showed lower syneresis, higher color saturation (C* ab = 14.28 ± 1.64 on day 21), greater reducing-capacity response and antioxidant activity, and superior sensory acceptance compared with the INU and CM/INU treatments. The loss of probiotic viability after simulated digestion was 49.22 ± 0.18%, corresponding to >50% cell retention. These findings demonstrate that coffee mucilage is an effective and sustainable wall material capable of improving synbiotic yogurt’s techno-functional quality and probiotic performance while supporting the valorization of agroindustrial by-products for advanced food delivery systems.
León et al. (Mon,) studied this question.