A preliminary assessment of high melting point, reduced sugar ice cream: Microstructure, consumer acceptance, nutritional impact, life cycle assessment, shelf-life, and energy consumption.

Abstract

Ice cream and other frozen desserts such as custard, gelato, and soft serve products are popular dietary options for various purposes including nutrition and satiety. These products are generally calorie dense due to such factors as US standards of identity (e.g., minimum 10% milkfat), sensory appeal for comfort foods, and various industry conventions such as those relating to mechanical freezing, extended storage, and even acceptable rheology for scooping and consumption. Yet, there are sufficient indications, including dietary interests for reduced dietary sugar intake and potential energy savings associated with manufacturing, that warrant exploring the properties of ice cream made with less added sugar. While sugar reduction is a common approach, such adjustments are routinely coupled with the inclusion of freezing point depressants such as sugar alcohols, to match freezing properties achieved with conventional levels of sugar. In this study, we reduce the total added sucrose from 17 to 10% wt/wt with soluble corn fiber as a relatively inert filling agent while making no adjustments for freezing point depression. The resulting products were evaluated for common quality and functional parameters as well as those involving nutritional, sustainability, and energy. In general, the high melting point ice creams performed reasonably well across the assays indicated. Although average consumer panel scores for Overall Likability of the high freezing point ice creams were lower than the conventional product (6.23 vs 7.38), the overall profile of these scores as well as the collection of other assay results indicates promise for this manufacturing approach. Of particular note are the potential improvements in nutrition, energy consumption, and overall sustainability due to the reduced sugar content.