Abstract
ABSTRACT Water kefir is considered to be a functional food with probiotic characteristics. It can be improved with addition of organic brown sugar and fruits native to Brazil, such as jaboticaba. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of brown sugar type: organic and conventional and the presence or absence of jaboticaba pulp in water kefir fermentation, based on the carbohydrate, organic acid, mineral composition and color profile. The fermentation process was carried out in two stages: with kefir grains, for 24 hours, at 25 °C and after filtration, maintained for 24 h at 25 °C in hermetic bottles, followed by a period of 8h refrigeration, and monitored every 8 h. Scanning electron microscopy of the kefir grains was performed after 24 h. The major changes in physicochemical patterns occurred up to 40 h. The final beverages presented acidic characteristics as a result of the production of lactic, acetic and succinic acids. The total sugar content had a reduction of around 50%. The sucrose content was reduced and the glucose and fructose increased. The use of organic sugar influenced the composition of the minerals. The characteristics related to color showed a tendency to increase over the evaluated times. It was concluded that it is possible to produce beverages fermented by water kefir grains, using organic or conventional brown sugar and jabuticaba pulp, being an alternative for the substitution of soft drinks, since it has no preservatives or food colorings, presents lower content of sugars and can be handcrafted.
Highlights
The growing interest in food for health improvement has driven the consumption of functional foods
The analysis of variance (ANOVA) for the six evaluated characteristics related to acidity: pH, total titratable acidity (TTA), lactic acid (LA), acetic acid (AA), citric acid (CA) and succinic acid (SA), were significant (p
The coefficients of variation (CV) obtained for these six characteristics related to acidity ranged from 0.77% for pH to 6.06% for TTA
Summary
The growing interest in food for health improvement has driven the consumption of functional foods. Among the non-lactic fermented beverages, water kefir, produced by a consortium of several bacteria and yeasts (Nikolaou et al, 2019), presents an interesting option, with the advantage of being low cost, safe and free from negative side effects (Alsayadi et al, 2013; Fiorda et al, 2016; Marsh et al, 2014). Brown sugar is the main substrate used for the fermentation of water kefir (Borguini; Torres, 2006). Various vegetables and fruits have been successfully used as kefir substrates, such as: soy, onion, ginger, carrot, apple, pineapple, grape, quince, kiwi, pear, melon, strawberry, pomegranate, tomato and coconut (Corona et al, 2016; Fernandes et al, 2017; Fiorda et al, 2017; Randazzo et al, 2016) as an option for diversification and nutritional enrichment. It is interesting to use fruits of Brazilian origin, such as jaboticaba, chosen in an unprecedented way to be evaluated in the present work
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
