Functionality of sugars and sugar replacers in model frozen dessert systems

Reducing sugar in frozen desserts is challenging because sugar plays a crucial role in controlling ice formation, texture, and melting behavior. Understanding how different anti-freeze agents influence these properties is essential for optimizing formulations, particularly in sugar-reduced products. We studied the effects of concentration and molecular weight of various anti-freeze agents on the ice content, ice curve, and physical properties of frozen desserts. We present a theoretical description of the ice curves of frozen solutions prepared with different anti-freeze agents. The ice content was determined by differential scanning calorimetry, from which the effective hydration number was extracted. Below 0 °C, the effective hydration number was negatively correlated with concentration and positively with molecular weight. In addition, we also determined various physical properties of the studied systems, including viscosity of the serum phase, hardness and melting properties. Hardness was related to both ice content and viscosity. However, melting parameters did not depend on both. Melting time was prolonged by high ice content, while lag time was more affected by viscosity, as higher-viscosity serum phases slowed heat transfer and delayed the onset of melting. This study shows that it is necessary to consider the characteristics of the solutes when optimizing sugar-reduced frozen dessert formulations.