Dairy ingredients replaced with vegan alternatives: valorisation of ice cream

With growing concerns of food fortification, dairy ingredient alternatives and waste management have risen the need for food manufacturers to review their recipes. Hence, this study was aimed to extract watermelon seed protein concentrates (WSPC) with ultrasonication and develop vegan ice cream with improved functional properties. Coconut fat and coconut milk were used as fat replacer and total solids source along with extract of WSPC substituting milk solids-not-fat (MSNF). Various functional properties of WSPC were assessed. Rheological, structural and sensory quality of vegan ice cream were comparable with standard dairy ice cream formulation. Melting resistance, viscosity and textural hardness were increased with increasing concentration of WSPC and found maximum in IC4 except overrun which was highest (62.02 +/- 0.16) in IC0V. Whereas, protein, total solids and total soluble solids were highest in IC4 in contrast to fat and pH which was maximum in IC0D (9.96 +/- 0.016) and IC0V (6.82 +/- 0.01), respectively. All treatments were found acceptable but highly satisfactory sample, concerning sensory acceptability, was IC2 with 10% WSPC.