Abstract
Miracle fruit has a high potential as a healthy sweetening enhancer, due to its powerful antioxidant capacity and its unique ability to transform sour taste into sweet taste. The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of different miracle fruit products on the likings of different sour foods. In total, 200 healthy adults (women 55%, 18-65 years old) evaluated five sour foods (apple, goat cheese, lemonade, yogurt, pickle) before and after miracle fruit application. Four commercial miracle fruit products (pills-Y; G; M, powder-P) were randomly assigned to each panelist. The pre- and post-test likings for overall, flavor, texture, and aftertaste were evaluated by using a nine-point scale. The "meeting expectations" was evaluated only in the post-tests. After miracle fruit administration, all the liking scores in yogurt, goat cheese, and apple increased; in contrast, lemonade and pickle liking scores decreased, except lemonade's texture with the P product. The Tukey post hoc test showed that the pre-to-post increments for overall, flavor, and texture likings in yogurt and in overall and flavor likings in apple using M product were significantly higher than using other products (p < 0.05). This study suggests that miracle fruit application can be an effective method for im-proving consumer likings for yogurt, goat cheese, and apple.