Abstract:
Fruit yoghurts can have many health benefits on humans compared to normal yoghurts
because fruits have high therapeutic and nutritional properties. Therefore, fruit yoghurts are
becoming popular among a health conscious population in Sri Lanka. There are many
underutilized fruit species in Sri Lanka and their uses are yet to be explored. Moreover, these
underutilized fruits can play a vital role in human nutrition because of their therapeutic and
nutritional properties. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to develop a fruit
yoghurt with incorporated Annona (Annona muricata L.), an underutilized fruit species
growing well in Sri Lanka. Plain yoghurts as well as Annona incorporated yoghurts were
prepared with cow milk and other ingredients such as sugar and gelatin. Annona fruit pieces
were prepared by blanching and dehydration methods. Plain type Annona jelly fruit yoghurts,
stirred type honey incorporated Annona fruit yoghurts and stirred type Annona fresh fruit
yoghurts were prepared in the laboratory. Physicochemical properties of yoghurts such as
Total Solid (TS) %, Fat %, Solid Non Fat (SNF) %, titratable acidity and pH during their
shelf-li/e were determined. Furthermore, microbiological and sensory properties of Annona
incorporated yoghurts were also determined and compared with those of a commercial brand
of fruit yoghurt. Sensory properties of yoghurts such as appearance, taste, aroma, texture and
overall acceptability were determined on a five-point hedonic scale with 3G^sensory^panelists.
Sensory results were analyzed using Kruskal Wallis non-parametric ANOVA test with the use
of STAT1STIX computer software (Ver 2.0) for windows. Annona jelly fruit yoghurt was
selected as the best yoghurt because of its significantly (P<0.05) higher sensory properties.
Total solid, SNF and fat percentages of Annona jelly fruit yoghurts were 21.8%, 8.8% and
3.4%, respectively. Shelf-life of the Annona jelly fruit yoghurt was 21days. In addition to
above properties, Annona fruit is reported to have high therapeutic properties especially for diabetic and constipated patients. In can be concluded that Annona fruit can successfully be
incorporated into yoghurts to produce a value-added fruit yoghurt with higher nutritional and
sensory properties.
