Impact of stabilizer type and concentration on the quality attributes of functional melon-based sorbets enriched with fruit, vegetable, and berry ingredients

This study investigates the effect of stabilizer type (pectin, agar-agar, guar gum) and concentration (0.2–0.6%) on the physico-chemical, structural-mechanical and sensory characteristics of melon-based sorbets enriched with fruit, vegetable and berry additives. Optimization was performed using response surface methodology (RSM) with the construction of polynomial regression models. It was found that increasing the concentration of stabilizers led to higher viscosity, total solids content, acidity and melting resistance, while pH decreased. The highest sensory scores were achieved with pectin at a concentration of 0.4%. The highest vitamin C content was recorded in samples with agar-agar. The developed models demonstrated a high degree of explanatory power (R² > 0.96), confirming their adequacy. Agar-agar and pectin at concentrations of 0.4–0.5% were identified as the most preferred stabilizers.