Gadhiya D., Patel A., Prajapati J.B. (2015): Current trend and future prospective of functional probiotic milk chocolates and related products -a review. Czech J. Food Sci., 33: 295-301.The world market of functional dairy products including ice-cream, cheese, sour cream, yoghurt, dahi, butter milk, powdered milk, and frozen desserts has been rapidly growing. The incorporation of probiotics into chocolate could offer a good alternative to common dairy products as it is liked by all age groups people. Chocolate is rich in natural antioxidants and the nutritional quality of it can be further enhanced by the incorporation of probiotics and/or prebiotics or dietary fibers. Current article reviews recent advances in the technologies aimed at incorporating probiotics into chocolate and related products, the ways to enhance or sustain their viability in the presence of stressed surroundings throughout the manufacturing process, and their market potential with future prospects.

Current study was taken up to develop probiotic chocolate using indigenous probiotic culture L. helveticus MTCC 5463. Preliminary trials included optimization of culture inoculums and physical form (freeze-dried or frozen concentrated) of addition and fi nally optimized product was tested for probiotic viability, texture, and organoleptic parameters at regular intervals during storage at 10±2 °C for 30 days. Probiotic chocolates prepared via incorporation of freeze dried culture (3% w/w) had acceptable organoleptic quality and had a similar behaviour as the control chocolate during storage. However, the viability of probiotic bacteria (2.42×10 8 CFU g -1 ) was achieved only up to 15 days of storage at 10±2 °C.