Inulin as a prebiotic for the growth of vegan yoghurt culture in pea protein-based vegan yoghurt-ice cream, while improving the textural properties

Abstract

The study aimed to develop a vegan yoghurt-ice cream made up of pea protein isolate with inulin as a prebiotic for the growth of yogurt culture while investigating the influence of inulin on textural properties – hardness, melting, overrun, and colour. Freeze-dried cultures were added at 0.02% (w/v) to the mixes made up of 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4% inulin, and incubation was done at 45 °C until it reaches a pH of 4.5. A significant (p<0.05) increase in counts of Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus were observed with the addition of inulin (2, 3, and 4%) and count was maintained more than 6 log CFU/g during 10 days of storage. The maximum overrun of 42.87 ± 3.74% was obtained with the addition of 4% inulin. The fermentation of pea protein ice cream mixes showed a significant (p<0.05) reduction in the hardness and melting times increased with the inulin addition. The colour values L*, a* and b* were influenced by fermentation and blueberry-juice concentration in the formulation. It can be concluded that the addition of inulin to the pea protein yoghurt-ice cream showed prebiotic activity and influenced the textural properties during the development of vegan probiotic food as a dairy alternative.

Keywords

• Pea proteins
• Ice cream
• S. thermophilus
• L. bulgaricus
• Inulin
• Prebiotic