Production of rice based functional fermented beverage contain honey natural sweetener

The current research was conducted to produce rice based functional fermented beverage using Lactobacillus plantarum and Lactobacillus acidophilus probiotic bacteria with three different combinations (0-100, 100-0 and 50-50 ratio) and with addition of 5% of honey as natural sweetener and evaluation of its bioactive compounds (total phenols and total flavonoids), antioxidant activity, sensory characteristics and bacterial viability during 15 days of storage at 4ºC. The results indicated that the beverage which produced using combination of two bacteria possess higher bioactive compounds, antioxidant activity and sensory characteristics compared to other beverages that contain one type of used bacteria and also showed desirable and acceptable sensory characteristics during 15 days of storage. In addition, the beverage which produced with Lactobacillus Acidophilus showed the highest bacterial viability during storage but bacterial population in all samples were higher than determined bacterial population for functional foods (at least 106-107 CFU/ml). So, the product which produced using combination of two bacteria can be considered as functional beverage.