Technology and stability of probiotic and prebiotic ice cream

Ice cream, with its pleasant taste and attractive texture, seems particularly suitable for delivering probiotics and prebiotics to the human diet, both for adults and children. However, in order to ensure that the products provide health benefits maintaining the global quality, some particular technological and microbiological aspects have to be considered. Therefore, this chapter deals with the ingredient functions and the production process of the ice cream, focusing on the technological and microbial hurdles for probiotic and prebiotic incorporation. Some notes on frozen yogurt are also reported.