Development of functional ice cream with egg white hydrolysates

Abstract Ice cream is one of the world's most popular frozen desserts today, and its global consumption is on the rise. Widespread lactose intolerance and cow’s milk allergies are the main causes for consumers’ demand for milk alternatives, together with those following a dairy-free or vegan diet. All of them has reduced the population´s interest towards the consumption of dairy products. Nowadays, the egg is considered one of the best sources of bioactive compounds, so making a functional food from it could be of interest. The objective of this research was to formulate a functional ice cream based on an egg white hydrolysate, which did not present any dairy component and was also low-fat and low-sugar. To carry out this duty, different formulations of egg white hydrolysate-based ice creams were developed and analyzed by means of a sensory analysis. The results indicated that the egg white hydrolysate-based ice creams had sensory properties similar to those of a commercial dairy-based ice cream. In conclusion, the dairy-free egg white hydrolysate-based ice creams could be marketed as a healthy alternative in the future, especially aiming at specific groups of the population such as lactose intolerants, allergic to milk proteins or people who present overweight, obesity or other related complications.