Effect of chitosan on the physico-chemical, microbiological and sensory properties of doogh

Doogh is a fermented dairy drink that produced with mixing of pasteurized yogurt, water, essential oils and salt. Due to low pH, doogh is susceptible to spoilage with mold and yeast that is the main challenge for its shelf life. At the same time, the consistency is very important in quality and marketability of doogh. Nowadays, the interesting of consumers to natural antimicrobial substances rather than chemical preservatives has been progressively increased. Chitosan is a derivative of chitin, unlike synthetic polymer compounds, is non-toxic and biodegradable in nature. The aim of this study was investigation on the effect of chitosan on the qualitative features and shelf life of doogh. In this research, chitosan was added to the doogh in four levels (0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3%) and qualitative characteristics of them were investigated by physico-chemical, microbiological and sensory analysis during 60 days. The results showed that, use of chitosan resulted decreasing of phase separation rate, acidity, mold and yeast, Streptococcus salivarius subspecies thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii subspecies bulgaricus counts and increasing of viscosity and pH. So that, samples containing 0.3% chitosan had 97% decrease in phase separation rate, 24% decrease in acidity, 6% decrease in mold and yeast count, 19% decrease in Streptococcus salivarius count, 11% decrease in Lactobacillus delbrueckii count, 122% increase in viscosity and 15% increase in pH compared with control samples, at the last day of storage. In the case of sensory features, chitosan did not have any effect on the color and appearance of doogh, but had effect on the flavor and also consistency was improved.