The purpose of this study was to establish new food products that increase the nutritional value and health
benefits of the probiotic yogurt currently used in the Western Heads East (WHE) Project in Mwanza, Tanzania.
The probiotic yogurt has established health benefits, and product development through fortification
must not adversely affect the acceptability of yogurt or the viability of the probiotics. Both sensory testing
and microbial analysis testing were conducted. The products tested were yogurt fortified with locally-grown
fruit purees with inulin and
Moringa oleifera
. The results of the sensory evaluation showed that all yogurts
were not rated significantly different from the control, except for appearance. The avocado puree without
inulin rated significantly lower in all categories. The microbial analysis showed that
Moringa oleifera did not
negatively affect the growth of
Lactobacillus rhamnosus
GR-1 in MRS, milk or yogurt, although a significant
decrease was found after 5 weeks of storage at 4 ℃.
