Development of probiotic tomato kulfi

Abstract

Kulfi is a traditional Indian frozen dessert with nutritional significance but, lacks therapeutic properties. Kulfi can be used as vehicle for probiotics and prebiotics, with the added advantage of being appreciated by people of all age groups. Current study involves the production of kulfi by incorporating probiotic culture of Lactobacillus acidophilus La-5 (107 – 108 CFU/g) and tomato juice (prebiotic) (25% and 37.5%) to enhance its functional value and create a synbiotic system. The effect of tomato juice concentration was evaluated for physiochemical properties, cultures survival and sensory characteristics. Data revealed a reduction in pH of kulfi variants with high tomato juice concentration. It was also found that, the probiotic tomato kulfi variants (25% and 37.5% variants) possessed high acidity (0.225% and 0.216%) and sucrose content (13.98% and 13.50%), respectively. The protein content was found to remain constant in all the kulfi variants, indicating no association between probiotic culture, tomato and kulfi. A decrease in fat content was observed with an increasing concentration of tomato juice. A reduction in viable counts was noted in 25% and 37.5% kulfi variants during one week of frozen storage. All kulfi variants received a fair score in the organoleptic evaluation, however, probiotic kulfi containing 25% tomato juice attained the highest score for all the parameters. Hence, proving that the incorporation of probiotic culture and tomato not only enhanced the nutritional properties of the kulfi, but also improved the sensory properties of the product.