Abstract:
Lactose intolerance is a common digestive issue in which the body is unable to digest lactose, a type of sugar found primarily in milk and dairy products. Lactose intolerance is common around the world, and patients usually avoid milk and dairy products to alleviate symptoms. Yoghurts were produced from imitation milk of plant sources; Almond, Coconut and tigernut while cow milk yoghurt served as the control. This research work aimed at quantifying the nutritional characteristics (proximate composition and mineral profile) of the yoghurts. Physicochemical, microbial and sensory assessments were also carried out on all four samples. The acceptability of these imitation milk yoghurts was judged by two sets of panelists; lactose intolerant people and people who consume milk. The results obtained were statistically analyzed and discussed. The findings showed that sample BYN (Cow milk yoghurt) had the highest ash and carbohydrate contents (2.33±1.00% and 12.19±0.73% respectively). RYN (Coconut milk yoghurt) had the highest fat content (12.37±1.26%) while XYN (tigernut milk yogurt) had the highest protein and lowest fat (1.48±0.33% and 5.18±0.0.72%) contents. PYN (Almond milk yoghurt) had the lowest protein content (0.55±0.02%). The mineral profile of BYN showed to be the highest in Ca (0.25%). All the imitation milk yoghurts were found to have higher amounts of manganese, iron and copper than BYN; with PYN having the highest values for the three minerals (4.89, 13.90 and 2.24 respectively). RYN had the highest Zn content (6.35ppm). The lactose intolerant panelists preferred the sweetened coconut yoghurt (RYS) which had the highest score for acceptability and was significantly different (p<0.05) from the rest. The imitation milk yoghurts in this study can be recommended to individuals seeking alternative to cow milk yoghurt or who are deficient in select micronutrients.
