Composition, microstructure, rheology, and meltdown behavior of commercial nondairy frozen desserts

The demand for nondairy and plant-based products has increased, but there is still a need for more information about and improvement in these products, especially when it comes to frozen desserts. Similar to ice cream, which simultaneously is an emulsion, dispersion, and foam, nondairy frozen desserts also have a complex structure. As a starting point, 15 commercial nondairy frozen desserts, marketed as offering an ice cream-like experience, were purchased and evaluated for compositional, physical, structural, rheological, and meltdown properties. The correlations between the parameters of these characteristics were also studied. The parameters with the greatest variability in percentage terms for each property after melt-down were fat content ranging from 3.8% to 18.6%, surface tension from 26.4 to 45.4 mN·m^-1, fat destabilization from 3.6% to 94.4%, yield stress from 0.0 to 25.2 Pa, and final height from 0% to 77.3%. Interestingly, the maximum overrun found was about 82%, considered low compared to economy dairy ice creams. The fat content was the most significant parameter that influenced drip-through rate, height change rate, and final height. Additionally, yield stress was the only rheological parameter that correlated with the meltdown behavior, which affected only one of them, the induction time. Therefore, in the meltdown profile, the lag phase was driven by yield stress, while the fast-melting phase and the plateau phase were influenced by the fat content. Moreover, four samples presented uncommon drip-though curves, which were visually recorded. This study offers a baseline understanding of the compositional, structural, rheological, and melting characteristics of commercial nondairy frozen desserts available in the United States. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: The compositional, microstructural, rheological, and meltdown characteristics of nondairy frozen desserts available in the US market were evaluated. The information can be used for industry research and development, understanding the challenges, and advancing knowledge regarding nondairy frozen desserts.