Elaboration, sensorial acceptance and characterization of fermented flavored drink based on water-soluble extract of baru almond

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The impact of alimentation on life’s quality have encouraged the search for alternative foods with better quality and use of native fruits with technological and nutritional potentials contributes to the development of new products. Thus, the aim of this study was to develop a fermented flavored drink, potentially probiotic, based on the water-soluble extract of baru almond, perform sensory evaluation, determine its chemical composition and monitor the shelf life. The extract was fermented by a culture containing Streptococcus thermophilus, Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium. After fermentation, thickeners, sucrose and plum pulp were added, these latter two in accordance to the proposed factorial design that resulted seven assays. These formulations were subjected to sensorial analysis, which included the acceptance test and purchase intention. The optimized formulation had its physical-chemical and nutritional characteristics evaluated trough the determination of chemical and mineral composition, viability of the probiotic bacteria and the acidity and pH parameters were evaluated during the twenty-eight storage days. Formulations obtained high rates of acceptability and purchase intention and the optimized formulation achieved good nutritional characteristics, being a food with high manganese content and a source of magnesium and phosphorus. During the storage, the pH and acidity values varied and probiotic microorganism count increased. Probiotic potential of fermented drink can be justified by presence of both microorganisms and by the verified counting obtained since the seventh storage day of the product.