OPTIMIZATION OF THE LEVEL OF INGREDIENTS FOR FUNCTIONAL DAIRY BEVERAGE USING RESPONSE SURFACE METHODOLOGY (RSM)

The present investigation was undertaken to optimize the level of ingredients (milk fat, sugar, and mango pulp) for functional dairy beverage using Response Surface Methodology. Central Composite Rotatable Design with milk fat (%), sugar (%), and mango pulp (var. Chaunsa, %) as independent variables produced 20 different combinations that were used to investigate the effect on viscosity (cP), antioxidant activity, and overall acceptability. The response surface three dimensional graphs were plotted as a function of two variables to show the effect of level of ingredients on physico-chemical and sensory properties of the beverage. Significant correlation models were established with the coefficient of correlation (R-2) greater than 0.8. An optimization of process variables was attempted for maximum antioxidant activity and overall acceptability. ANOVA tables revealed that increase in fat and sugar levels lowered the antioxidant activity, while enhancement of mango pulp significantly increased both antioxidant activity and overall acceptability of the beverage. The optimized levels of ingredients were 0.5% milk fat, 6.0% sugar and 30% mango pulp.