Development of an innovative frozen dairy product fortified with carrot extract

Abstract

The development of frozen yogurt supplemented with an oily extract from carrot was the main focus of this study. The research aim converged from the fact that Daucus carota L. are among the worldwide most consumed vegetables, exhibiting numerous health benefits. Both analysed variants (the control sample and the fortified sample) presented high total carotenoids, β-carotene, and lycopene contents. The addition of the oily extract from carrot caused a significant increase of the total carotenoids, respectively the β-carotene contents. Also, these functional dairy products registered a slight increase in the antioxidant activity compared to the control sample, the fortified variant having the highest value (93.95±0.050%). The total polyphenols content varied depending on the analysed variant, from 0.122±0.006 to 1.712±0.008 mg/g dry weight (DW) while the content of total flavonoids varied from 0.065±0.001 to 0.780±0.002 mg/g DW. The carrot and blueberries’ HPLC profiles also highlighted the abundance of the bioactive compounds. The confocal microscopy analysis of the fortified frozen yogurt revealed a complex microstructure due to the diversity of the biochemical compounds, a microstructure that preserved the probiotic strain very well and comprised functional properties to the final product. The frozen dairy product enriched with carrot extract can be considered an innovative functional product as it was designed to provide the consumer with various beneficial effects based on its high content of biologically active compounds.