Ice-cream as a model system to evaluate the food colorant functionality of red beet extract emulsion

ABSTRACT This study aims at evaluating the potential of concentrated red beet extract-loaded oil-in-water emulsion as a natural colorant in ice cream. The emulsion produced by a combination of rotor-stator homogenization and ultrasonication had a mean droplet diameter and polydispersity index of 1.440 ± 0.048 µm and 0.402 ± 0.04, respectively. Then, ice creams with synthetic red colorant (ICS ) and red beet extract emulsion at 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, and 30% (w/w, with respect to whipped cream) were prepared. The redness values (a*) of ice creams with 15% (12.6) and 20% (17.1) emulsion were comparable to that of ICS (11.7). The physicochemical and sensory properties of test ice creams were compared against control ice cream without colorant. Although red beet extract emulsion influenced the proximate composition and overrun, it did not modify the sensory characteristics and color of ice cream. The storage time of six months did not have a significant effect on the color of test ice creams.