Formulation of reduced sugar herbal ice cream using lemongrass or ginger extract

Purpose - Ice cream is one of the popular sweet throughout the world. However, it contains high fat and sugar but lacks natural antioxidants. Several herbs in Thailand which are traditionally used as food ingredients show high antioxidant properties such as ginger and lemongrass. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to develop reduced sugar herbal ice cream using lemongrass and ginger extract. Design/methodology/approach - Two ice cream formulas were prepared by using the lemongrass or ginger extract at the levels of 10, 15 and 20 percent (w/w), respectively. Moreover, xylitol was added as a substituted sugar at 80, 90 and 100 percent (w/w). Sensory evaluation was conducted by nine-point hedonic scale. Moreover, the physical, chemical and microbiological properties of the final ice cream product were determined by comparing with the control formula. Findings - Based on the sensory evaluation, the two herbal ice cream formulas (15 percent lemongrass or ginger extract) with 90 percent xylitol replacement have the highest overall acceptability score of 7.28 and 7.44 (like moderately), respectively. The viscosity, overrun value and hardness of the reduced sugar herbal ice cream were not significantly different as compared to control formula (p = 0.05). The chemical composition analysis showed that the total sugar of the product decreased by 65 percent. Moreover, antioxidant activities of herbal ice creams were higher than the control formula. The number of total bacteria of reduced sugar herbal ice cream was less than 10 CFU/mL. Originality/value - The reduced sugar consumption is useful for lowering the risk of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), especially diabetes mellitus. This paper presented the reduced sugar herbal ice cream formulas with high antioxidant activity. Therefore, these data could be the prototype in order to develop herbal and healthy ice cream product.