Choosing the Best Sugar Concentration in Vegan Chocolate Ice Cream

Consumers are getting more concern about health and tend to adopt a vegan or natural eating habits in their lifestyle. Therefore, new dairy free products developed with vegetable ingredients with high antioxidant activity have been the target for food industries and researchers. The aim of this study was to develop a sugar and milk free ice cream made of cocoa and vegetable beverage and find its ideal sweetness. Five different samples of ice cream were made with cocoa, vegetable beverage, vegetable fat, glucose, and sucrose in five different concentrations. The equipment involved in ice cream making was Cuisinart ICE® ice cream maker. The vegan chocolate ice cream samples were presented in white disposable plastic cups containing one scoop (each scoop was about 15 g) adequate to evaluate the affective test. Each sample was coded with a three-digit random number and consumers were also provided with bottled mineral water for palate rinse. Tests were carried out in individual air-conditioned booths (21 0C) in the Laboratory of Sensory Science and Consumer Studies from the School of Food Engineering (FEA/Unicamp) and evaluated under white light. A complete balanced block was used (MACFIE et al., 1989), in which the samples were presented sequentially in a monadic way. The consumer group (n=120) was composed by students from Unicamp. Consumers evaluated the samples using a linear continuous JAR scale. Results were analyzed by simple linear regression. The correlation found between concentrations and averages from the acceptance tests demonstrated that the ideal sweetness is 21% of sucrose in the studied product. Thus, consumers’ acceptance showed that the ideal sweetness in the vegan chocolate ice cream is similar to the one, found in milk ice cream.