Use of just-about-right scales and penalty analysis to determine appropriate concentrations of stevia sweeteners for vanilla yogurt

Abstract

With the mainstream emergence of natural sweeteners such as stevia, which is available in different commercial formulations, suitability for yogurt needs to be validated. The present study aimed to determine the appropriate concentration level of 3 processed stevia sweeteners/supplements in commercial plain low-fat yogurt flavored with natural vanilla. Three different levels of sucrose, aspartame, an erythritol and 95% rebaudiana A stevia sweetener, a 95% pure mix of maltodextrin and steviol glycosides, and a cold water stevia extract were used in the study. The just-about-right level for each sweetener and consumer acceptability of each naturally flavored low-fat vanilla yogurt were evaluated. Results from penalty analysis demonstrated that only 0.7% of stevia containing maltodextrin and 95% steviol glycoside was necessary, whereas higher levels (between 4.0 to 5.5%) were more appropriate for stevia containing erythritol and 95% rebaudiana A or cold water extract of stevia, respectively. The concentrations of stevia sweeteners used influenced the perceived sweetness and sourness. In general, consumers disliked the yogurt sweetened with stevia or aspartame, and neither disliked nor liked the yogurt sweetened with sucrose, which was largely driven by perceived sourness of the base yogurt. The findings underline the importance of careful selection of stevia type and concentration as well as optimizing yogurt cultures and fermentation conditions before product launch.

Preference mapping of dulce de leche commercialized in Brazilian markets

“…A few studies have used penalty analysis in a dairy foods consumer study: in cottage cheese (Drake et al, 2011) and in vanilla yogurt with stevia (Narayanan et al, 2014).…”

“…Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis was performed to provide a measure of the relative importance among the inputs of the neural network model and to illustrate the model output variability as a function of the change in the input variable. The JAR scores were evaluated through penalty analysis, being considered significant when more than 20% of consumers evaluated the sample above or below JAR (Drake et al, 2011;Narayanan et al, 2014). The purchase intent data, computed in binomial form (1, representing buy, >3; 0, representing not buy, ≤3), were correlated with data from the JAR scale and acceptance test by LR to find the affective characteristics that most influenced the purchase intent of the product (Cruz et al, 2011).…”

Parents’ and Children's Acceptance of Skim Chocolate Milks Sweetened by Monk Fruit and Stevia Leaf Extracts

“…Zhang and Gruen () determined the iso‐sweetness of natural sweeteners rebaudioside A, monk fruit, erythritol, lactitol, and xylitol to 10.1% sucrose sweetened whey protein beverages and reported that rebaudioside A had the highest sweet taste potency followed by monk fruit extract (77 to 115 times sweet as 10.1% sucrose), whereas erythritol, lactitol, and xylitol were less sweet than sucrose. Narayanan and others () determined that the appropriate concentrations of stevia sweeteners for naturally flavored vanilla low fat yogurt were intermediate levels (0.7 to 5.5%, wt/wt). Morais and others () compared stevia with other artificial sweeteners in chocolate dairy desserts and reported that stevia was the weakest sweetener followed by aspartame, sucralose, and neotame was the strongest.…”

Use of JAR‐Based Analysis for Improvement of Product Acceptance: A Case Study on Flavored Kefirs

“…On the other hand, in the past years several publications reported successful results using JAR scales, for example, for development of fruit filling (Agudelo and others ), nutraceutical‐rich juices (Lawless and others ), and aleurone‐rich pastas and breads (Bagdi and others , ). JAR scales are also widely used to develop dairy products, for example sweetener concentrations in vanilla yoghurts (Narayanan and others ), chocolate dairy desserts (Morais and others ), inulin fortified ovine milk yoghurt (Balthazar and others ), and coffee‐flavored milk (Li and others ). The improvement of OAL during product development processes strongly depends on the initial OAL of the products.…”