Comparative Analysis of Saffron- and Mint-Enriched Soy Yoghurt: Effects on Physicochemical Characteristics, Quality Attributes, and Storage Stability

Abstract

The goal is to develop plant-based fermented products that improve gel stability, antioxidant activity, and sensory attributes. Also, the viewpoint should not impair the activity of the food fermentation starter cultures. The current study invented a targeted formulated dataset to analyze day 0, 7, 14 and 21 samples of 3 independent production batches of control Soy Yoghurt (SY0), Saffron-enriched Soy Yoghurt (SYS) and Mint-enriched Soy Yoghurt (SYM) at 4 ± 1°C for 21 days. Physical, rheological, phenolic, antioxidant, and microbial analyses were performed on the samples. Two-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Tukey’s tests, partial eta squared, and Pearson’s correlations were used to analyze the datasets. A second dataset of (24 panelists) was used to assess the sensory attributes. SYM and SYS were shown to have better microbial stability and better antioxidant activity and gel strength, respectively. SYM was shown to have a better syneresis value. ```PHYSCHEMICAL, RHEOLOGICAL ANALYSES, ANTIOXIDANT, MICROBIOLOGICAL ANALYSES , Hardness and b* color of SYS and SYM were better than SYO. The results also indicated that SYM has the best gel stability, SYS has the best antioxidant activity, and SYM has the best syneresis. Saffron has the best sensory color value. The results may indicate that the use of mint and saffron may improve the overall gel strength and storage stability of the product. More validation is needed to support product claims.