ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Agricultural and Food Economics
Volume 9 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2025.1644804
This article is part of the Research TopicHarnessing the Potential of Underutilized Crops: A Path to Food Security and Climate ResilienceView all 4 articles
An exploratory study on the sensory acceptability and quality characteristics of probiotic yogurt with green papaya (Carica papaya L.): Promoting underutilized Fruit crops
Provisionally accepted
- 1The University of the West Indies St. Augustine, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago
- 2The University of the West Indies at St Augustine, Saint Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago
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Yogurt enriched with underutilized fruits and probiotics offer a promising solution for sustainable food systems. In this study, milk produced locally was fermented with a consortium of active cultures of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) probiotics (Lactobacillus bulgaricus, Lactobacillus acidophilus, and Streptococcus thermophilus) and infused with four levels of local green papaya nectar-0% (YP0), 5% (YP5), 10% (YP10) and 15% (YP15) to produce four yogurts. The study employed a 4 x 3 complete randomized design giving 12 treatments. The main objectives were: To formulate yogurt incorporating lactic acid bacteria (LAB) probiotics and varying concentrations of green papaya nectar and to evaluate the sensory acceptability and physicochemical characteristics of probiotic yogurt produced with different inclusion levels of green papaya nectar. The LAB count ranged from 6.34-6.36 log10 CFU while pH increased significantly (p <0.05) during storage. The °Brix value increased significantly (p < 0.05) with higher papaya nectar inclusion levels, which is reflective of the higher total soluble solid content of the green papaya that was incorporated at various concentrations. The colour L* value of the yogurts became significantly higher (p < 0.05) during storage indicating they became lighter in colour. Sensory acceptability scores revealed that yogurts with higher papaya nectar inclusion were significantly (p < 0.05) more preferred than the control in overall acceptability. At day 7, consistency was significant (p < 0.05) for Y10 and Y15, where consistency improved from 4.33cm/s to 7.67cm/s in Y3 and from 5.00 cm/s to 9.83 cm/s in Y4. The results suggest that papaya nectar can be a promising natural additive to improve the sensory appeal of yogurt for sustainable food systems.
Keywords: papaya, Yogurt, Underutilized fruit crop, sustainability, Lactic acid bacteria
Received: 10 Jun 2025; Accepted: 23 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 De Gannes, Karuppusamy, Sealey and Isaac. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Vidya De Gannes, The University of the West Indies St. Augustine, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago
Sivakumar Karuppusamy, The University of the West Indies at St Augustine, Saint Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago
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