The aim of this study was to compare the sweetening power of xylitol and sucrose solutions, verifying differences in sweetness among cream, strawberry and chocolate flavoured ice creams sweetened with these two sweeteners, and also determining the sensory quality of the products with respect to appearance, colour, aroma, consistency and flavour. There were significant differences (p < 0.05) among all the formulations except between the strawberry formulations made with 100% sucrose and 50% xylitol. With respect to quality, the cream flavoured ice creams presented the greatest differences in quality among the three concentrations of sweeteners, since of the five attributes evaluated, significant differences (p < 0.05) were obtained for four of them (appearance, colour, consistency and flavour). The strawberry ice creams were the most uniform with respect to quality, only presenting significant differences (p < 0.05) for consistency. The chocolate ice creams were intermediate, presenting significant differences (p < 0.05) for consistency and flavour.
sensory quality; ice cream; xylitol
