Development and characterization of functional low-fat frozen dairy dessert enhanced with dried lemongrass powder

Dried lemongrass (DLG) herb is high in total phenolic compounds (1,388 mg gallic acid equivalent/100 g), antioxidant scavenging activity (57.88%), and dietary fibers (19.61%), and it also imparts lemon flavor, minerals, and several health benefits. Therefore, it is considered a cost-effective and functional ingredient for various food systems. A trial was conducted to incorporate DLG into a functional low-fat lemon frozen dessert as a fat mimetic and to assess its impacts on physicochemical, rheological, total phenolic compounds, antioxidant scavenging activity, sensory properties, and production costs. A control full-fat frozen dairy dessert (FFD) with 6% fat was prepared for comparison. DLG was added to a low-fat frozen dessert (LFD) with 1% fat at ratios of 0, 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5%. Results showed that FFD had higher rheological characteristics, melting resistance, production costs, and sensory properties compared to LFD. The use of DLG increased mix specific gravity, freezing point depression, apparent viscosity, consistency coefficient index, overrun, total phenolic compounds, and antioxidant scavenging activity while decreasing the pH value compared to LFD. Adding 0.5–1.0% DLG to LFD significantly improved overall acceptability and reduced production costs by 23.80 and 18.56%, respectively. The functional LFD with 0.5–1% DLG achieved comparable quality characteristics to the full-fat treatment.