Optimization of the Growth Rate of Probiotics in Fermented Milk Using Genetic Algorithms and Sequential Quadratic Programming Techniques

Prebiotics (peptides, N-acetyglucoamine, fructo-oligosaccharides, isomalto-oligosaccharides and galactooligosaccharides) were added to skim milk in order to improve the growth rate of contained Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus casei, Bifidobacterium longum and Bifidobacterium bifidum. The purpose of this research was to study the potential synergy between probiotics and prebiotics when present in milk, and to apply modern optimization techniques to obtain optimal design and performance for the growth rate of the probiotics using a response surface-modeling technique. To carry out response surface modeling, the regression method was performed on experimental results to build mathematical models. The models were then formulated as an objective function in an optimization problem that was consequently optimized using a genetic algorithm and sequential quadratic programming approach to obtain the maximum growth rate of the probiotics. The results showed that the quadratic models appeared to have the most accurate response surface fit. Both SQP and GA were able to identify the optimal combination of prebiotics to stimulate the growth of probiotics in milk. Comparing both methods, SQP appeared to be more efficient than GA at such a task.