Development of a probiotic low-fat set yogurt containing concentrated sweet pepper extract.

Yogurt contains various health-promoting components such as beneficial bacteria and bioactive peptides. However, plain yogurt is regarded as a poor source of phenolic compounds, vitamin C, and other substances that give a high antioxidant property to the product. Since the objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of the addition of different concentrated sweet pepper extracts (CSPE) to the yogurt milk formulation on some quality parameters of the probiotic set yogurt during 21 days of cold storage. For the production of probiotic yogurt samples, Lactobacillus acidophilus LA-5 was used as probiotic bacteria. The functional set yogurts containing 5% of yellow, orange, or red CSPE were prepared and compared with probiotic control yogurt (without CSPE). With incorporation of CSPE, a functional yogurt with high viable cell counts of probiotics (>10 8  cfu/g), appropriate acceptability (acceptance scores more than 7, i.e., good acceptability), and textural quality produced. Fortified CSPE yogurt displayed large flakes with irregular surface and more compact texture as compared to the control sample. Based on the results of the study, the yogurt sample having orange CSPE was selected as the best functional product. After 21 days of storage, orange CSPE had the highest hardness (173.33 mg), consistency (1183.33 mg/s), and probiotic counts (8.3 log cfu/g) than other yogurt samples.