Study of the functionality of selected hydrocolloids and their blends with κ-carrageenan on storage quality of vanilla ice cream

In the present paper, the functionality of hydrocolloids related to the rheological, physical and sensory characteristics of ice cream mixes and frozen ice cream was studied. Carboxylmethylcellulose, guar gum, sodium alginate and xanthan gum were used as primary stabilizing agents, whereas κ-carrageenan as secondary. The hydrocolloid concentrations were 0.1 and 0.2% and the primary to secondary ratio was 9:1. The ice cream samples were stored under quiescent frozen conditions. Samples were taken after 4, 8 and 16 weeks of storage and examined for the functionality of the stabilizing systems.The addition of hydrocolloids significantly reinforced the shear thinning behavior, particularly in the case of sodium alginate, xanthan gum, and κ-carrageenan which was attributed to gelation phenomena. Sodium alginate attained the better stabilizing effect improving textural quality and acceptance of ice creams even after 16 weeks of storage, whereas the presence of κ-carrageenan found to be a crucial factor for the cryoprotection. Xanthan gum was also evaluated as an effective stabilizing agent, indicating that gelling hydrocolloids may remarkably amend ice cream shelf life.Moreover, principal components and cluster analysis of instrumental and sensory data furnished important information for the correlation of objective and sensory properties and discrimination of stabilizing systems based on quality criteria.