Effect of using stevia extract as natural sweetener during production of ice cream with low calorie on quality criteria of product

In this research; the effect of a plant-derived, natural sweetener stevia on quality characteristics of low calorie ice cream was studied. Four different types of ice cream were produced by the addition of different sweeteners sucrose, stevia, aspartame and the mixture of aspartame + acesulfame-K. Experiments were done three times in research. The ice cream samples were stored for 6 months at – 18 o C. Physical, chemical, microbiological and sensory properties of samples were investigated on 1st, 30th, 60th, 90th, 120th, 150th and 180th days of storage period and the results obtained were evaluated. It was shown that there were significant effects of stevia on total solid, fat, protein, total sugar, total calorie, viscosity, hardness levels, overrun, first dripping times and melting ratio, colour-appearance, structure-consistency, smell-flavour points of ice cream samples (p<0,05). As a result of research; it was concluded that stevia reduced the calorie value of ice cream and also the product with stevia was liked by the panellists depending on the sensory evaluation scores.