Investigation of physicochemical and organoleptic properties of diet celery yogurt

This study was performed to evaluate the different levels of celery puree on the physicochemical properties and viability of probiotic bacteria in yogurt. The results showed that at the end of the storage period, the highest pH was observed in the sample containing 10% celery. With increasing the storage period, the acidity increased and the highest and lowest acidity at the end of the storage period was observed in control and treatments with 10% celery, respectively. Yogurt samples containing 10% celery showed the lowest serum separation rate and control samples showed the highest. In the case of sensory properties, treatments with 10% celery obtained the highest scores of taste, odor, texture and general acceptance. The highest and lowest color scores were related to the treatment containing 5% of celery and control, respectively. Evaluation of rheological properties showed that in all samples, the viscosity decreased with increasing shear rate and samples containing 10% celery have a higher viscosity than other samples. At the end of the storage period, the highest vaiability of probiotic bacteria was observed in yogurt samples containing 10% celery. According to the results of this study, probiotic yogurt containing celery can be introduced as a useful product due to its desirable sensory and probiotic properties.