Rheological behaviour of fruit and milk-based smoothies

Abstract

Two of the most important food attributes for today´s fast-moving lifestyle are convenience and healthiness [1-2]. Fast-moving lifestyle specifically affects to elderly people, who are prone to bad-nutrition due to their dental status reducing the consumption of fruits and vegetables [3]. Smoothies are blended beverages, and good examples of convenient and healthy foods for helping to reduce this problem. So, they are gaining increasing market leverage in the beverage sector. Texture and rheological behaviour of foods can determine their acceptability. Therefore, added to nutritious features, smoothies must also account with outstanding mechanical properties. Stability of the products is also a main quality, which can be gained adding a small amount of stabiliser to beverage formulations. But, to avoid opposite effects, stabilisers addition should ameliorate the product texture.