Physicochemical analysis of thermally treated commercial plant-based beverages coffee added

Plant-based beverages in substitution of milk are used in coffee preparation, the product may be destabilized due to the heating or coffee addition. The aim of this work was to study commercial UHT plant-based beverages applying heat treatment and adding coffee to understand the effects on the physical and thermal stability. Commercial plant-based beverages of five different vegetables sources were analyzed under three conditions: Treatment 0 (25.0 ± 1.5 °C), Treatment 1 (85.0 ± 1.5 °C, 5 min), and Treatment 2 (85.0 ± 1.5 °C, 5 min, instant coffee added). Studied parameters were pH, heat coagulation time (HCT), optical microscope and particle size distribution. The pH ranged from 6.4 to 7.9; HCT between 1 and 13 min; particle size parameters between 65 and 95% (> 1 µm), 1–30% (< 1 µm), 0–2 µm (Dv10), and 10–50 µm (Dv90). The addition of coffee had a significant impact on the pH and the application of Treatment 1 did not have a significant impact in physicochemical stability. It was verified that commercial plant-based beverages are formulated with a large amount of ingredients and cannot be considered clean label. Moreover, the presence of hydrocolloids as ingredients could influence the thermal stability of the samples. Variations in optical microscopy were associated to the vegetable material. It was concluded that the variability of ingredients and the addition of soluble coffee could affects results in the finalization of culinary dishes regarding sensory or nutritional characteristics.