Evaluation of physicochemical, textural, and microbial characteristics of probiotic soy cheese during storage: Generation and isolation of bioactive peptides.

This article investigates the impact of different probiotic cultures—Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lacticaseibacillus casei, and Bifidobacterium lactis—on the physicochemical, textural, microbiological, and bioactive peptide characteristics of probiotic soy cheese during storage. The study found that L. acidophilus enhanced dry matter, lactic acid concentration, and hardness, while B. lactis produced the highest acetic acid levels; all probiotic strains maintained viable counts above 10^7 CFU/g after one month. Bioactive peptides isolated, particularly the fourth fraction from the L. casei sample (T2F4), exhibited notable antioxidant and antimicrobial activities, with peptides of 5–10 kDa identified via SDS-PAGE. These findings suggest that probiotic soy cheese can serve as a functional food source of bioactive peptides with potential applications as natural food preservatives.