Probiotic fermented food products utilizing okara (Soymilk residue)

Fermented products enriched with probiotic bacteria have developed into one of the most successful categories of functional foods. Currently there has been interest into the market in introducing food products combining probiotics with prebiotics or fibers. In recent years due to the serious economic and environmental concerns the utilization of food by-products is unprecedentedly expected to increase and become more efficient. Okara generated from tofu industry is discarded as agro-industrial waste with little market value but it has promising nutritional & health benefits and has great potential to be applied in human foods and can replace other food ingredients to increase the contents of fiber and protein. At present no fermented food product made of soy okara is currently available commercially. This work has contributed to the knowledge of creating a new generation of ‘probiotic health’ foods. Okara which is discarded as waste was successfully fermented with Lactobacillus acidophilus probiotic microorganism & utilized for developing different types of probiotic fermented food products which are microbiologically safe having good consumer acceptability and rich in nutrient