Development of functional yogurt dessert with improved nutraceutical properties enriched with wine lees

Abstract

Yoghurt is a well-known milk fermented product. It has been popular all around the world because of its functionality and nutritional value. Adding substances with natural antioxidants would further improve yoghurt’s nutraceutical characteristics. Wine lees constitute the sediment left at the bottom of the vessel after the vinification process. They contain mainly dead yeast cells and bioactive compounds, like polyphenols and other antioxidants. They are poorly valorised after the wine production, and are usually thrown away as waste. This by-product from the vinification process can be successfully used by the food industry. The present study describes the development of a novel product, which is yoghurt with wine lees. This promising product concerns the combination of yoghurt and wine lees that come from red wine production. Except from developing a functional food product, wine lees valorisation contributes to the reduction of wine industry waste and to the promotion of circular economy. For that purpose, four samples with different content of wine lees (0%, 5%, 7% & 10%) were developed. Their physicochemical and microbiological properties were measured. Specifically, the pH, microbiology and antioxidant activity were analysed. Also, a sensory analysis test was conducted for further evaluation of the products. The results were surprisingly positive for most samples; they had high antioxidant activity because of the phenolic compounds they contained, and also high concentration and diverse population of yeasts coming from wine lees enrichment. A further investigation would result in a competitive new product that may enter the global market.