Development of a synbiotic snack for gut-brain axis health

Snacks are ideal vehicles to intervene in the diet of consumers as they are becoming a staple in the modern diet. This study aimed to develop a synbiotic snack capable of delivering both prebiotics and live probiotics with potential positive impact on supporting the gut-brain axis system by incorporating chickpea and red lentil flour as a source of protein and fibre, specialty fibres as sugar and fat/saturated fat substitutes, and dark chocolate enriched with a probiotic formulation (SLAB51®) with proven neuroprotective properties in a mouse model. Compared with a conventional wheat snack, the developed snacks presented not only better nutritional composition (high in proteins, fibres, unsaturated fatty acids, and low in sugars, total/saturated fats) but were also characterised by high prebiotic potential towards SLAB51® multi-strain probiotic formulation, low glycaemic index, and the ability to induce slightly increased satiety. The developed snacks had a good shelf life with minimal chocolate blooming, and high probiotic viability after six months of storage at both 25°C and 4°C (41.7% and 88.0% survival, respectively). Positive consumer response was observed among the senior population (> 65 years old), with moderate acceptability and high willingness to buy in the senior population upon disclosure of pulse ingredients and potential health benefits. This research provides comprehensive scientific evidence for developing nutritional and healthy food products with a potential synbiotic effect tailored to an ageing population, without neglecting the pleasure of treating yourself to a good chocolate-coated cookie.