Abstract:With the improvement of people's awareness of sugar reduction, the development of ice cream using sugar substitutes has gained enormous attention. However, sucrose not only provides sweetness, but also plays a critical role in the textural characteristics of ice cream, which is a great challenge for sugar-reduced ice cream. Hereby, the current research is to investigate the effect of various bulking agents on the textural properties of sugar-reduced ice cream, ice cream samples were prepared using sucrose, polyols (sorbitol, erythritol, maltitol, xylitol), soluble dietary fiber (resistant dextrin, polyglucose) and soluble dextrin (maltodextrin) as the bulking agents at a mass fraction of 10%. The sensory texture characteristics and the key physical and chemical properties of ice cream samples were systematically compared. Results showed that the sensory texture profile of ice cream using polydextrose, maltitol or resistant dextrin as the bulking agent was most similar to that of the sample using sucrose as the bulking agent. Comparatively, ice cream using erythritol or maltodextrin as the bulking agent showed high hardness, low plasticity and poor spreadability, while samples using sorbitol or xylitol as the bulking agent had low hardness and high foaminess. The properties of viscosity, particle size distribution and tribological behaviors of samples using polyols as the bulking agents were closer to those of the sample using sucrose as the bulking agent. Particularly, the thermodynamic property of ice creams using maltitol as the bulking agent was quite similar to that of the sample using sucrose as the bulking agent. Besides, samples using dietary fiber or dextrin as the bulking agent exhibited lower friction coefficient and better lubricating property. Accordingly, in the development of sugar-free or sugar-reduced ice cream, a similar texture profile with that of ice cream using sucrose as the bulking agent could be achieved using maltitol combined with polyglucose or resistant dextrin.
