This study aimed at investigating the suitability of oat flakes for making functional beverages. For this purpose, flakes were ground into flour and fermented with various strains of LAB. Yeasts were not considered for processing to avoid the presence of ethanol in the beverages. Preliminarily, a sensory analysis was carried out to select the most suitable concentration of oat flakes flour (25%, wt/wt). Causing a partial gelatinization of the starch, flaking allows to avoid a further step of gelatinization, which is commonly used to get a creamy texture. LAB were already successfully proposed
as starters for manufacturing oat-based non-dairy beverages. Among the strains screened, L. plantarum LP09 allowed a relatively fast acidification and conferred the more balanced sensory profile. L. plantarumis largely diffuse in spontaneous and sourdough fermentation of cereals although technological properties and adaptation markedly change depending on strain, matrix and fermentation conditions. Its robustness as starter was proven. The fermentation process to get a
yogurt-like beverage was prolonged until reaching the value of pH of ca. 4.2. Under laboratory conditions, ca. 12 h were needed. To shorten the process, which may be too long for an industrial application, the effect of an enzyme supplementation was investigated. Two enzyme preparations having xylanase, endoglucanase, β-glucanase and ferulic
acid esterase (Depol 740 L), and α-amylase (Grindamyl) activities were used. It was already shown that these enzymes improved the technology and nutritional features of cereal matrices having a high content of fibers. Oat flakes beverages were subjected to pasteurization to prolong the shelf-life and avoid postacidification
processes, without nutritional and sensory modifications. The starter survived at a relatively high number in
beverage, and it was already reported that the survival of LAB becomes important when related to the increasing interest for non-dairy foods as vehicles of useful microorganisms. Nevertheless, at the cell density reached by pasteurization, no significant differences were found in the chemical composition and sensory profile of oat beverages after 30 days of storage at 4 °C.