Evaluation the Effect of Tragacanth Gum and Stevia on Physicochemical and Sensory Properties of Almond Milk-Based Non-Dairy Dessert during Cold Storage

Nowadays, the development of reduced calorie non-dairy products is of great importance. Therefore, in the current study, the effect of adding 1% w/w tragacanth gum and replacing sucrose with stevia sweetener at 45% w/w on properties such as pH, total soluble solids, firmness, viscosity, color, syneresis and sensory properties of almond milk-based non-dairy dessert was evaluated during a 21 day of cold storage. The results revealed that the pH and syneresis of the dessert containing tragacanth gum and stevia at the end of storage period were 2.76 and 58.61% lower than the control sample, respectively. However, the total soluble solids, firmness and viscosity increased significantly (p<0.05) with the addition of tragacanth gum and stevia during cold storage period. On the first day of storage, a 6.04% reduction for lightness (L*) and an increase of 441.18% and 38.38% for redness-greenness (a*) and yellowness-blueness (b*) was observed for the samples containing tragacanth gum and stevia, respectively. The results of sensory evaluation showed that almond milk-based non-dairy dessert containing tragacanth gum and stevia had higher sensory scores than the control sample during the cold storage period, although this difference was not significant for color, taste and flavor characteristics (p>0.05). Finally, it can be concluded that tragacanth gum can be used as a thickener in the formulation of almond milk-based non-dairy dessert. In addition, partial replacement of sucrose by stevia does not have an adverse effect on the properties of the final product, so it can be used to produce a reduced calorie non-dairy dessert.