Enrichment of probiotic ice cream with different dietary fibers: Structural characteristics and culture viability

This study evaluated the effect of 5 dietary fibers (apple, orange, oat, bamboo, and wheat) on the physicochemical, rheological, and textural characteristics; sensory properties; and culture viability of probiotic ice cream stored at −18°C for 180 d. The presence of orange and apple fibers increased the titratable acidity, decreased the lightness (color) value of the ice creams, and enhanced the red and yellow coloration. Compared with the control sample, the consistency indices and apparent viscosities of the experimental samples increased with the addition of all dietary fibers except oat fiber. The highest viscosity was obtained in the sample fortified with apple fiber, whereas the ice cream containing orange fiber showed the highest hardness after d 60 of storage. The addition of orange and apple fibers significantly increased melting resistance; however, panelists did not generally like these samples in terms of taste-flavor. All ice creams had viable counts of Lactobacillus acidophilus of ≥7 log cfu/g during storage except the samples with orange and bamboo fiber. Bifidobacterium lactis counts were also found to be >6 log cfu/g in those samples until d 150 of storage.