Role and influence mechanism of different concentration of hyaluronic acid on physicochemical and organoleptic properties of yogurt

Hyaluronic acid (HA) has been approved to be added to milk and other dairy products, it has highly water-binding ability, which can combine with a large number of water molecules through intramolecular hydrogen bonding to form high viscous gels. In addition, HA is one of the prebiotics, can provide health benefits such as anti-aging, anti-inflammatory, angiogenic effects, is a potential additive for enhancing the quality of yogurt. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of 0%, 0.02%, 0.05%, 0.1%, 0.25%, and 0.5% HA on rheological properties, functional properties, thermal stability, protein stability, protein structure, and protein fractions of yogurt. With the addition of HA, the storage modulus is larger than the loss modulus in all the samples, which is a typical characteristic of gel networks, and the microstructures of the yogurt samples showed a continuous and more homogeneous spatial network structure. Overall, the highest concentration (0.5%) had a positive effect on the yogurt characteristics, such as higher water-holding capacity and foam stability, more continuous and uniform structure, and higher value of hardness. In contrast, the 0.1% concentration HA lead to a very abnormal results; it had a negative effect on yogurt, including water-holding capacity, texture, and protein stability, suggesting structural destabilization and disruption of interaggregation before protein. These findings provide valuable fundamental data for commercialized HA-added yogurt development and quality control processes.