Evaluation of Physicochemical Properties of Yoghourt Fortified with Calcium Salts

Studies show that there is a substantial gap between the recommended daily calcium intake and what people actually consume. Calcium food fortification is an effective method to increase daily calcium consumption. In the present study, the influence of three calcium salts at different levels was evaluated on physicochemical properties of set yoghourt such as pH, acidity, incubation time and syneresis. Therefore set yoghourt prepared by addition of three calcium salts: calcium gluconate (CaG), tricalcium citrate (TCaC) and mixture of (1:6) calcium lactate and calcium gluconate (Cal+CaG) at three levels (600, 800 & 1000mg/100ml milk). Experiments were done in triplicates during 14 days of storage at 4°C using randomized factorial statistical analysis. Results indicated that calcium salts at used levels did not show any significant effect on pH and acidity of samples. But differences between fortificated and control samples were significant. Significant difference (P<0.05) was noticed in the level of syneresis for different salt combination. Also, incubation time of samples enriched with TCaC was significantly higher than the other preparations. Overall, TCaC in all studied levels, proved to be the salt of choice for yoghourt fortification.