Anais do Congresso Brasileiro de Ciência e Tecnologia de Alimentos

Yogurt is one of the most consumed fermented dairy products worldwide, being considered a healthy product because it contains proteins, vitamins and minerals. However, the elaboration of traditional formulations uses an expressive amount sucrose, the excessive consumption of which is associated with several of chronic diseases which represent a major public health problem. Therefore, the industry has been looking for strategies aimed at product reformulation. Thus, the aim of this study was to obtain blend sweetener optimization using prebiotic (fructooligosaccharide - FOS) and natural sweetener to replace partially sucrose through the Napping® methodology combined with the ultra-flash profile (UFP). The mixture design was used to define the concentrations of sucrose, steviol glycoside and FOS, totaling eleven formulations. The Napping® was carried out by 50 consumers who were instructed to taste the eleven formulations and evaluate, positioning and organizing them in a two-dimensional plane (white sheet of paper), according to the degree of similarities or differences. Finally, consumers took the UFP in which they were asked to write according to a previous list of descriptors, those they considered appropriate to characterize each of the groups formed and/or individually positioned sample. To obtain the descriptive profile, the coordinates (X and Y) of each sample were evaluated, while the determination of the optimal ranges was obtained using the Euclidean distance between samples sweetened with steviol glycoside and FOS in relation to the sample with sucrose. The optimized formulation was validated through the acceptance test carried out by 103 consumers who evaluated six samples. The results revealed that Napping® in combination with UFP produced a sample configuration with a greater contribution of the perception of sweetness, that is, consumers separated the samples based on the intensity of sweetness. The optimized formulation is composed of 70% sucrose, 5% steviol glycoside and 25% FOS – being possible, according to specific legislation, even a higher concentration of FOS maintaining the same acceptability of the product sweetened with 100% sucrose. In conclusion, through the developed blend of steviol glycoside and FOS, 30% reduction in sucrose in yogurt can be perfectly achieved without affecting the sensory quality of the product.