Abstract
Donkey milk was used as unconventional ingredient for products of new generation. Fresh strawberries and donkey milk were used to develop an ice cream with a high functional profile. The ice cream was supplemented with two strains of lactic acid bacteria showing probiotic properties, Lactobacillus plantarum 998 and Bifidobacterium adolescentis ATCC15703. The final product had very low fat levels and achieved an overrun of 24.7±1.2%. Changes of the main nutritional factors were investigated during 4 months of storage at -20°C. Remarkably, the content of vitamin C decreased whereas total phenols and the antioxidant capacity resulted stable, with no significant changes.
Highlights
In recent years, probiotic dairy products are considered the major branch of the functional food Industry, with a continuously expanding market
Other sugars were found and quantified, i.e. lactose 2.98±0.02g/100g, mainly from donkey milk, while glucose 1.13±0.01g/100 g and fructose 1.28±0.01 g/100 g was attributable to the strawberries
Consistent with the composition of donkey milk, protein content was low (1.19±0.02g/100g) and the lipids present only in trace (0.08±0.01g/100g) nutritionally, these ice cream samples can be classified as low-fat products and the energy provided by 100 g of this ice cream was 106.24±0.39 kcal, which was even lower from previously published low-calorie functional ice cream [2]
Summary
Probiotic dairy products are considered the major branch of the functional food Industry, with a continuously expanding market. Most of microorganisms currently used as probiotics belong to Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium. Their consumption bears multiple benefits such as the inhibition of bacterial pathogens, protection against gastrointestinal disorders, improvement of lactose tolerance, enhance calcium absorption, vitamins synthesis and stimulation of the immune system [1]. Several functional dairy products have been proposed: yogurts, fermented milks and beverages. Donkey milk is not commonly exploited as a commercial food product. Few attempts were performed to produce fermented products using donkey milk, such as fermented milks, yogurt and probiotic yogurt, all showing promising possibilities for new dairy applications [6,7,8]. Strawberries, which are rich in phenolic compounds, are commonly added to dairy products to increase their functionality and antioxidant capacity
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