Crafting Guilt-Free Indulgence: Exploring Dietary Fibers as Fat Replacers in Low-Fat Ice Cream

Ice cream is a widely consumed dairy product, with Italy leading European production at over 80 million kilograms annually and a per capita consumption of 8 litres. Physically, ice cream is a complex colloidal system of fat droplets, air bubbles, ice crystals, and an aqueous phase. As consumers shift toward low-fat options, the challenge is maintaining texture, flavour, and structural stability. Fat significantly influences creaminess, flavour, and melt resistance, making innovative fat replacers like plant fibres essential for low-fat ice cream production. This study evaluated the use of four dietary fibres—acacia, apple, oat, and inulin—as fat substitutes in vanilla-flavoured ice cream. By replacing 3% of fat with these fibres, the physical (pH, viscosity), thermal properties, and sensory characteristics were analyzed and compared to a 9% fat control. The results showed a significant increase in viscosity with the addition of fibres. Inulin performed comparably to the control in nearly all sensory attributes, evaluated using Quantitative Descriptive Analysis with 12 judges, confirming its suitability as a fat replacer. Acacia fibre improved thermodynamic stability, minimized melt rate, and reduced the cold sensation, making it a promising fat substitute, though its cost is currently high. Apple and oat fibres, however, reduced the crystallization and melting temperatures (p < 0.05), altered the vanilla flavour, and affected the ice cream's colour, limiting their use in light-coloured varieties. These findings suggest that inulin and acacia fibres offer the potential for producing high-quality, reduced-fat ice cream with minimal sensory compromise.