غلامرضا عبدی

With the ever-increasing global population, dietary needs, and nutritional scarcities like micronutrient inadequacies of Vitamin A and C, the present study was planned to improve nutritional, antioxidant, physicochemical stability, and organoleptic characteristics of nutrient-dense carrot powder (CP) supplemented (0.75–2%) goat milk yogurt at 0–14 days of storage. CP and goat milk were found to uphold appreciable magnitudes of ash, dietary fiber, and protein content as 4.89 and 0.92 g/100g, 10.68 and 0.005 g/100g, 6.38 and 3.40 g/100g, respectively. The results for the nutritional and physicochemical characteristics of CP supplemented (0–2%) goat milk yogurt at the 0–14th day of storage elucidated a significant (p < 0.05) increase in total solids (10.9–13.3 %), vitamin A (0.05–1.97 mg/100g), vitamin C (2.3–3.3 mg/100g) and carotenoid contents (0.84–1.3 mg/100g). Likewise, total flavonoids, total phenolics, FRAP and DPPH values of the supplemented yogurt significantly (p < 0.05) enhanced from 117.7 to 120.2 mg CE/g, 8.2–12.1 mg GAE/100g, 39.8–41.3 μM TE/g and 58.3–59.6 %, respectively. However, a∗ value (i.e., redness) increased from −0.76 to 12.3 among color parameters. The results for the supplemented yogurt's pH, vitamin A, and carotenoid contents showed slight variation in the storage of 0–14 days. Sensory evaluation of value-added yogurt showed the highest aroma and textural scores for T2 (1.25 %), i.e., 8.2 and 8.1, whereas the data also showed the highest overall acceptability of the finished product for the treatment T2 (1.25 %), i.e., 8.1. Conclusively, CP is a promising carrier of vitamins A and C, which could be used as a viable ingredient of choice to develop novel food products with health-improving properties.