Physical, textural and sensory characteristics of reduced sucrose cakes, incorporated with clean-label sugar-replacing alternative ingredients

High levels of sucrose in foods present a great risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes. Therefore a low sucrose intake is strongly recommended. Sweet baked products incorporate high levels of sucrose. Sucrose in the original cake formulation was reduced and replaced with apple pomace, whey permeate, oligofructose, polydextrose. An acceptable sucrose reduction of between 21 and 27% was achieved. Cakes containing apple pomace had the lowest specific volume (1.8 cm3/g) and highest crumb firmness (8.60 N) (P < .05). Apple pomace and whey permeate had a significantly decreased L* values of the crust (P < .05). Moisture content of the cake crumb was increased significantly with the addition of oligofructose, whey permeate and polydextrose. All treatments resulted in a significant increase of the water activity of the cake crumb compared to the control (P < .05). Crumb cell structure was maintained as shown by 2-D and confocal imaging. Sensory trials revealed the reformulated cakes were acceptable to panellists