Sensory Qualities of Non-Dairy and Dairy Products Fortified with Aloe Oil: A Preliminary Study

Aloe vera has several beneficial health effects as it interacts with probiotics and is also a source of prebiotics, antioxidants, and other bioactive materials. Thus, there has been increasing interest in the development of beverages containing Aloe vera. In this investigation, sensory qualities were estimated by fortifying oil isolated from Aloe vera in non-dairy and dairy products at different concentrations (fortified with 1% increments from 0% to 5%). Because of the strong aroma and strong yellow color of aloe oil, the sensory quality values estimated in this study were generally low. However, the samples fortified with 1% aloe oil exhibited the best sensory quality values compared with the control. Consequently, the results of this study are valuable as preliminary findings to determine the various sensory qualities of kefir fortified with aloe oil. To improve sensory qualities in the future, it is necessary to estimate the optimal lowering of the concentration of fortified aloe oil, and assess whether aloe oil exhibits various biofunctional activities at different concentrations.