Attributes and consumer acceptance of yoghurt flavoured with non-cultivated indigenous Swazi fruits

The value of non-cultivated indigenous fruits as flavouring agents for yoghurt has not been given sufficient attention in Swaziland. Consequently, commercial cultivated fruits are used as yoghurt flavours, resulting in higher production costs for the dessert. A study of sensory and physical characteristics of yoghurt flavoured with selected non-cultivated indigenous fruits was done. Fruit purees were made from tincozi, tineyi, and umfomfo, along with mixtures of strawberry, tincozi and tineyi; umfomfo and strawberry; and umfomfo and passion fruit. The physico–chemical properties measured were pH, titratable acidity and potential for syneresis. Sensory evaluation was done by an untrained panel consisting of available, local consumer folks used to doing sensory evaluation and the organoleptic characteristics assessed were appearance, texture and general acceptability. In all cases there were no significant (P > 0.05) changes in pH after 7 days of storage at 4oC. Using indigenous fruit purees did not negatively affect the titratable acidity content of yoghurt. Indigenous fruit flavoured yoghurt had a lower acidity than plain and strawberry flavoured yoghurt. Using indigenous fruits as flavouring agents reduced potential for syneresis significantly (P < 0.05) from between 50 and 60% (w/v) in strawberry and plain yoghurt, respectively, to about 30% in indigenous fruits flavoured yoghurt. The highest preference (7.53) was given to the appearance of the strawberry flavoured yoghurt and appearance of the tincozi was rated lowest (5.57). Strawberry flavoured yoghurt was more highly rated than indigenous fruits flavoured yoghurt in all the sensory attributes. This was attributed to the fact that the panellists were more likely to be more accustomed to strawberry flavour and they presumably were less accustomed to the indigenous fruits that had never been used in yoghurt production before. Mixing indigenous fruits with cultivated exotic fruits such as strawberry and passion fruits improved the acceptability of the indigenous fruit flavourings. It was concluded that indigenous fruits can be successfully used as yoghurt flavours, and this may improve the texture of the yoghurt and most probably lower its consumer price. A similar study targeting the rural community could be done to confirm findings from this study. Keywords: Indigenous fruits, yoghurt, sensory evaluation. AJFAND Vol. 9 (1) 2009: pp. 637-651