Attributes and consumer acceptance of yoghurt flavoured with non-cultivated indigenous Swazi fruits

Abstract

The value of non-cultivated indigenous fruits as flavouring agents for yoghurt has not been given sufficient attention in Swaziland. Consequently, commercial cultivated
fruits are used as yoghurt flavours, resulting in higher production costs for the dessert.
A study of sensory and physical characteristics of yoghurt flavoured with selected
non-cultivated indigenous fruits was done. Fruit purees were made from tincozi,
tineyi, and umfomfo, along with mixtures of strawberry, tincozi and tineyi; umfomfo
and strawberry; and umfomfo and passion fruit. The physico–chemical properties
measured were pH, titratable acidity and potential for syneresis. Sensory evaluation
was done by an untrained panel consisting of available, local consumer folks used to
doing sensory evaluation and the organoleptic characteristics assessed were
appearance, texture and general acceptability. In all cases there were no significant (P
> 0.05) changes in pH after 7 days of storage at 4oC. Using indigenous fruit purees did
not negatively affect the titratable acidity content of yoghurt. Indigenous fruit
flavoured yoghurt had a lower acidity than plain and strawberry flavoured yoghurt.
Using indigenous fruits as flavouring agents reduced potential for syneresis
significantly (P < 0.05) from between 50 and 60% (w/v) in strawberry and plain
yoghurt, respectively, to about 30% in indigenous fruits flavoured yoghurt. The
highest preference (7.53) was given to the appearance of the strawberry flavoured
yoghurt and appearance of the tincozi was rated lowest (5.57). Strawberry flavoured
yoghurt was more highly rated than indigenous fruits flavoured yoghurt in all the
sensory attributes. This was attributed to the fact that the panellists were more likely
to be more accustomed to strawberry flavour and they presumably were less
accustomed to the indigenous fruits that had never been used in yoghurt production
before. Mixing indigenous fruits with cultivated exotic fruits such as strawberry and
passion fruits improved the acceptability of the indigenous fruit flavourings. It was
concluded that indigenous fruits can be successfully used as yoghurt flavours, and this
may improve the texture of the yoghurt and most probably lower its consumer price.
A similar study targeting the rural community could be done to confirm findings from
this study.

Keywords: Indigenous fruits, yoghurt, sensory evaluation.

AJFAND Vol. 9 (1) 2009: pp. 637-651