The aim of this study was to determine the key physicochemical, sensory and quality attributes of plant-based yogurts made from soy, coconut, cashew, almond and hemp, including a dairy benchmark yogurt. The soy, coconut and cashew-based yogurts showed textural parameters comparable to the dairy yogurt, with firmness values of 0.46, 0.44, 0.51 and 0.36 N, respectively. Rheological analysis showed that one of the soy-based yogurts was similar to the dairy yogurt in terms of apparent viscosity, in addition to water-holding capacity (82.8% and 75.7%, respectively). Other plant-based yogurts, e.g., hemp, showed different rheological and textural parameters to the other plant-based products, relating this to the agar and rice starch components of the hemp formulation. The sensory analysis demonstrated that some plant-based yogurts were similarly appreciated to dairy-based products. This was due mainly to the presence of specific hydrocolloids, sweeteners and flavours in the formulations; for example, the acceptability of the soy- and dairy-based yogurts were identical (5.95). The results obtained in this study allowed identification of key quality attributes of plant-based yogurt products and highlighted relationships between such attributes and formulation, which can be exploited in future product development.

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The objectives of this study were to investigate the nutrient composition, protein profile, morphology, and pasting properties of protein-rich pseudocereal ingredients (quinoa, amaranth, and buckwheat) and compare them to the more common rice and maize flours. Literature concerning protein-rich pseudocereal ingredients is very limited, mainly to protein profiling. The concentrations of macronutrients (i.e., ash, fat, and protein, as well as soluble, insoluble and total dietary fibre) were significantly higher for the protein-rich variants of pseudocereal-based flours than their regular protein content variants and the rice and maize flours. On profiling the protein component using sodium dodecyl sulfate–polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), all samples showed common bands at ~50 kDa and low molecular weight bands corresponding to the globulin fraction (~50 kDa) and albumin fraction (~10 kDa), respectively; except rice, in which the main protein was glutelin. The morphology of the starch granules was studied using scanning electron microscopy with quinoa and amaranth showing the smallest sized granules, while buckwheat, rice, and maize had the largest starch granules. The pasting properties of the ingredients were generally similar, except for buckwheat and amaranth, which showed the highest and lowest final viscosity, respectively. The results obtained in this study can be used to better understand the functionality and food applications of protein-rich pseudocereal ingredients.

Buttermilk (BM) has recently received much attention as a source of milk fat globule membrane (MFGM) due to its high polar lipid (PL) content, which gives it functional properties and health benefits. Nevertheless BM can be obtained from two different technological processes, i) the BM from the butter oil industry (BM1) and ii) BM from the butter manufacture (BM2). Neutral lipids (NL) and PL characterization from both BM and their MFGM isolated fractions have been qualitatively and quantitatively characterized including the individual phospho-and sphingolipids by HPLC-ELSD as well as triacylglycerols (TAG) and cholesterol and FAME by GC-FID. The results revealed that while BM (either from BM1 or BM2) had a PL fraction of 12-16%, the MFGM isolated fraction contained about 40% of PL with major presence of phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), phosphatidylcholine (PC) and sphingomyelin (SM). Besides, MFGM showed a significant increase in the medium molecular weight TAG and cholesterol and almost two fold amount of PUFA content than BM due mainly to linoleic acid. The results of this study provide deeper information on the lipid composition of BM and MFGM isolated fractions of great importance for the design of dietary supplements with potential beneficial effects on human health.