Evaluation of physicochemical, antioxidant, and sensory characteristics of <i>khoa</i> prepared from blends of soy and standardized milk

Abstract

There is increasing interest in soymilk as a nondairy alternative due to its health benefits. This study aims to investigate the effects of blending various levels (50%–70%) of soymilk with standardized milk on physicochemical, antioxidant, and textural properties of khoa prepared from these blends. The chemical composition of khoa ranges from 35.40–37.41 g/100 g moisture, 62.58–64.59 g/100 g total solids, 17.67–18.66 g/100 g protein, 16.92–21.36 g/100 g fat, 2.50–3.62 g/100 g ash, and 0.29–0.42 g/100 g acidity, respectively. Addition of soymilk increased the antioxidant activity, total phenols, and protein while decreasing the fat, ash, and acidity. The textural parameters like cohesiveness, gumminess, springiness, chewiness, and adhesiveness were significantly (p < .05) increased, whereas hardness decreased with the proportion of soy milk in the blend. Incorporation of soymilk at different level had significant (p < .05) effect on lightness and yellowness of khoa. Results revealed that khoa developed with blend T2 (50% soymilk: 50% standardized milk) had better sensory and other quality parameters. Practical applications Soymilk has great potential to supplement dairy milk. Nutritionally improved soy milk incorporated khoa can play an important role in sweet making industry. Soy milk incorporated khoa can also reduce the utilization of fluid milk for the preparation of khoa, resulting in an increase in per capita availability of fluid milk in the country. This will also help in the development of good quality/nutritionally improved sweets at a low cost. This research outcome will also be enhanced the industrial utilization of soybean for making khoa and nutritionally improved sweets which result in improving the socio-economic value of the country because the total Indian sweet market is around Rs. 520 billion in terms of annual sales. So, these products may play an important role in overcoming the health-related problem and solve the problem of milk availability.