Quality and nutrition of cow's milk paneer supplemented with pastes from indigenous date varieties

• ACE-inhibitory and antioxidant activity of paneer were monitored. • Microbiological and sensorial quality prepared paneer were also evaluated. • The paneer with date pastes showed appreciable antioxidant activity. • The maximum ACE-inhibition (66 %) was evident in paneer with Ajwa paste. In the present study, the antioxidant potential and angiotensin-I converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory activity of cow's milk paneer supplemented with pastes (10 % of milk) from indigenous date varieties were monitored during storage. The prepared paneer was also evaluated for its physicochemical characteristics, microbiological and sensorial quality during storage period (0–12 days, 5 °C). It was observed that the ESFs of Ajwa paste showed significantly ( p < 0.05) higher antioxidant potential and ACE-inhibition than other investigated date pastes. Moreover, all of the investigated paneer showed significantly ( p < 0.05) increasing trend concerning sensory evaluation until 9 days of storage. The paneer supplemented with date pastes showed significantly ( p < 0.05) higher ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) (3150.70–5776.00 μmol equivalent of Trolox (TE)/g of ethanol soluble fraction (ESF)) and DPPH (1634.70–1645.70 μmol TE/g ESF)/ABTS (83.26–102.43 mg TE /100 g ESF) radical scavenging activity than control paneer. Moreover, paneer (3 days of storage) supplemented with Ajwa paste showed significantly ( p < 0.05) high ACE-inhibition (66 %) and lower inhibitory concentration (IC) 50 (9 mg/mL) as compared to all other investigated samples. Hence, it may be concluded that the paneer supplemented with date pastes offers considerable antioxidant potential and ACE-inhibitory activity.