Formulation of a Sports Drink from Fermented Whey

Abstract

The formulation of a sports drink made from fermented whey was optimized. Acid whey (3.32% lactose) was fermented using cultures of Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus. The resulting fermented whey (2.84% lactose) was used as the main raw material in the preparation of sports drinks with various levels of stabilizer added (T1= 0%, T2= 0.1%, T3= 0.125%, and T4=0.15%). Physicochemical analysis, microbial analysis, sensory evaluation, and proximate analysis were conducted to determine the quality, acceptability, and storage life of the sports drinks. Results revealed that the drinks progressively became more viscous with increasing levels of stabilizer. However, the addition of stabilizer did not affect the pH or Total Soluble Solids (TSS) of the drinks. TSS and pH significantly fluctuated during storage. Within the 30-day storage with the exception of T1, the total aerobic plate count (APC), yeast and mold counts (YMC), and coliform counts of all the treatments were less than 10 2 cfu/mL, which is microbiologically acceptable. Sensory evaluation showed that T3 was the most liked sample (6.58). All the sports drink types formulated were found to be statistically comparable to a known commercial brand in terms of their mean liking ratings for color, aroma, taste, and mouth-feel. Just about right (JAR) results revealed that the stabilizer-added drinks had too much orange flavor. T3 contained 22.1% carbohydrates, thus it could be accordingly classified as a 'hypertonic sports drink'.