Some quality characteristics of ice cream produced from animal and vegetable based milk with encapsulated water kefir

The aim of this study was to create ice cream with water kefir added to a mixture of cow's milk and almond milk in order to produce a novel product with probiotic qualities. For this, ice cream was created by mixing encapsulated and non-encapsulated water kefir drinks with ice cream mixtures containing various ratios of almond and cow milk. After 60 days of storage, changes in chemical, biochemical, microbiological, volatile flavour components, and sensory properties were then evaluated. The samples had similarities in terms of fat content, dry matter content, viscosity, protein content, ash content, overrun, first dripping, and microbiological characteristics. Almond milk ice creams were found to have a more fragile structure that was more quickly meltable, and they were also found to have a dull grey-white in appearance. The findings of the texture analysis showed that the AK sample had the maximum hardness value of 670,36 g and the DKSK sample had the lowest hardness value of 171,14 g. Almond milk ice creams have significant quantities of oleic, linoleic, and palmitic acids. Compared to other fatty acids, the samples containing cow's milk had greater concentrations of palmitic acid, oleic acid, stearic acid, linoleic acid, and lauric acid. While the Mg, Mn, and Fe contents of ice cream made with almond milk were higher, the P, Ca, Na, and K concentrations of those made with cow's milk were lower. The samples' water activity levels were found to range from a minimum of 0.893 (CKSK) to a maximum of 0.907 (DSK). The samples containing encapsulated water kefir had greater levels of bacterial viability over the first 30 days of storage; the bacterial count on M17 Agar ranged from 4.6 log cfu/mL in the ASK sample to 6.3 log cfu/mL in the AKSK sample. The samples containing water kefir were found to have between 5.4 and 7.2 log cfu/mL at the start of storage and between 4.6 and 6.1 log cfu/mL at the 60th day, according to data collected as a consequence of bacterial counts on MRS agar. The ice cream samples that contained water kefir drinks had a greater yeast content.