Organogelation: It’s Food Application

Abstract

Ice cream is a sweetened frozen dairy product preferred as snacks or dessert made of milk and milk products, that is often added with fruits (raw and/or dried form), along with other essential ingredients like flavours, colours etc. In the last decade, the perceptions of consumers have changed from ice creams as a mere enjoyment snacks/dessert to functional food with health benefits. Several communities across the world and research institutes have shown keen interest and demand for fortified ice creams with additional nutrients or bioactive substances. Attempts have been made to make ice cream as functional food by incorporation of probiotics, having several additional advantages, such as improving consumer’s health and nutritional value of product along with improvement in ice cream properties. Prebiotics like insulin and Fructooligo-saccharides (FOS) are widely exploited as sugar substitutes that also have shown positive effect on gut health. Spirulina powder, as an additive to ice cream, helps in replacing stabilizers and giving natural light green colour to ice cream. The increasing concerns about the effects of diet on health have elevated demand for reduced fat ice cream. For this reason dietary fibres, whey protein and modified starch addition in ice cream preparations have been exploited. Ice creams prepared with vegetable oils extracted from soy and several other sources exhibit health benefits like lowering the risk of cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Incorporation of tiger nut based milk in ice cream is expected to replace cow milk and could be alternative for designing ice cream addressing lactose-intolerance consequences. Incorporation of kinnow peels as a source of photochemical, improves colour as well as flavour of the ice cream. In this review different varieties of ice creams and their positive impacts on consumer’s health is explored.