Patent ID: 8097245

Claim:
A process for producing a glass matrix comprising a probiotic bacteria, the process comprising: a) dispersing under heating conditions at least one polysaccharide in water; b) adding trehalose, a sugar alcohol and a probiotic bacteria to the dispersed polysaccharide to form a slurry, wherein the ratio of trehalose to sugar alcohol is 3:1 to 1:3 and wherein the sugar alcohol is selected from a group consisting of mannitol, glycerol, sorbitol, xylitol, maltitol, lactitol and isomalt; c) contacting the slurry with a bath comprising Ca ++ ions for a sufficient time to allow cross-linking thereby forming a gel matrix d) harvesting the gel matrix and placing the harvested gel matrix in a drier wherein the temperature of the harvested gel matrix is maintained above the freezing temperature of water; e) reducing the pressure during a first drying stage and maintaining the temperature at about 10-20° C. for a first period of time; and f) further reducing the pressure during a second drying stage and increasing the temperature to between about 40-50° C. for a second period of time to produce the glass matrix comprising the probiotic bacteria.