Design and characterization of a plant-based ice cream obtained from a cereal/legume yogurt-like

A gluten and lactose-free plant-based yogurt-like was used as the main ingredient to produce a novel plant-based ice cream. The integrated approach used to investigate the main properties of the novel ice cream demonstrated similar nutritional label between the plant- and milk-based products with the former showing higher protein digestibility and absence of lactose. The lactic acid bacteria fermentation occurring during the yogurt-like production ensured the decrease of the antinutritional compounds of the legume ingredients and the obtainment of suitable technological and sensory characteristics. Indeed, similar sensory profile with only slight differences in appearance, structure, taste, odor and texture parameters were found for both the plant- and milk-based products. However, structural and technological characteristics of the ice creams were significantly different; indeed, the overrun was higher in the plant-based ice cream, such as hardness, gumminess, and adhesiveness. A high cell density (>107 cfu/mL) of viable lactic acid bacteria during the 120-days storage at −20 °C confirmed the potential of the plant-based ice cream to be used as carrier of probiotics.