Evaporative concentration and high-pressure homogenization for improving the quality attributes and functionality of goat milk yogurt

Goat milk yogurt is gaining scientific attention worldwide due to its nutritional quality and potential health benefits to consumers. Understanding the impact of evaporative concentration and high-pressure homogenization (HPH) on goat milk yogurt quality is of high importance for dairy industry. This study aimed to investigate the influences of vacuum-assisted evaporative concentration combined with HPH (20–150 MPa) on the physicochemical, sensory characteristics and in vitro digestion of fermented goat milk (FGM). Concentrated FGM (CFGM) exhibited longer fermentation times, smaller particle size, increased viscosity, firmness and cohesiveness compared with pristine FGM, whereas HPH treatments induced shorter acidification processes. Meanwhile, the CFGM produced by HPH treatment at 150 MPa showed enhanced stability by decreasing the average particle size, and exhibited the highest overall acceptability among all FGM and CFGM samples assessed. Furthermore, CFGM treated with higher HPH pressure showed an improved degree of hydrolysis, protein digestibility and antioxidant activity during digestion compared with CFGM treated at HPH pressure of 20 MPa. Therefore, the results demonstrated the feasibility of the combination of evaporative concentration and HPH in the development of goat milk yogurt with enhanced quality attributes and functionality. These results are crucial to enhance the processing and handling of the goat milk.