Functional and physicochemical characterization of a novel pearl millet—Soy milk-based synbiotic beverage

This study presents the physicochemical and functional characterization of a novel fermented pearl millet–soy milk-based synbiotic beverage. The synbiotic fermented pearl millet beverage was optimized at 40% pearl millet and 10.41% sugar, with hedonic score of more than eight for all the responses, through response surface methodology. The fermented synbiotic beverage, with Lactiplantibacillus plantarum strains exceeding 10⁸ colony-forming units/mL, exhibited superior nutritional and physicochemical qualities when compared with the unfermented counterpart. The viability percent of lactic acid bacteria in the developed beverage was found to be significantly high (87.83%). The survivability of probiotic culture was 76.71% in simulated gastric juice and 73.87% in simulated intestinal juice after sample storage for 25 days. The result showed that millets stand out as a promising raw material for developing fermented nondairy synbiotic beverages, particularly when combined with microbial strains such as L. plantarum.