Neutralized Direct-Acid-Set Whey as an Extender for a Chocolate-Flavored Dairy Drink ¹

A chocolate-flavored dairy drink was prepared in which four parts of neutralized direct-acid-set whey and six parts of whole milk were combined with 1.44% chocolate flavoring, 4.5% sugar and 0.2% nonfat-dry milk. The extended chocolate-flavored drink was compared with a conventional chocolate-flavored low-fat milk made with the same formulation except skimmilk replaced neutralized whey and no nonfat-dry milk was added. Both products were heated to 80 C and mixed 2 min in an institutional Waring blender to disburse salts from neutralized whey. pasteurized at 80 C for 35 min and cooled immediately to 5 C. Sedimentation. viscosity, pH and consumer acceptability were determined. No sedimentation occurred after 7 days of storage, but after 10 days about 5.3% sediment by volume was observed in both drinks upon centrifugation. After 7 days at 4 C, the whey-extended chocolate drink had a 4% by volume watery layer that increased to 4.5% after 10 days. Maximum viscosities of 47 and 49 centipoise, respectively, were obtained after 5 days at 4 C for the extended and conventional chocolate-flavored low-fat milk. Viscosities declined to 26-27 centipoise after 10 days. Twenty-two of a consumer panel of 37 preferred the whey drink over the conventional, and seven expressed no preference, judging by a combined preference/triangle test. When data from the triangle taste test were subjected to a statistical analyses, the probability for preference was .47 for the whey drink, .30 control and .21 no preference. There was no difference in acceptability (p > 0.05).