Antioxidant properties of quark cheese enriched with avocado seed powder

Today, with changing consumer habits, the demand for nutritious and healthy snacks is increasing daily. Quark cheese, which has been consumed extensively for many years, especially in Europe, is among these healthy products due to its textural and sensory properties in addition to its nutritional profile. In this context, in the present study, the production of quark cheese with the addition of avocado seed powder (ASP) in different proportions was carried out. Thus, while improving the functional properties of quark cheese, it is also aimed to evaluate the avocado seed, which is one of the by-products of the food industry. DPPH and ABTS free radical scavenging activity and total phenolic compound content (TPC) analyses were conducted in plain and ASP-added samples. It was observed that adding ASP to quark cheese at different rates had a statistically very significant effect (p<0.01) on DPPH radical scavenging activity, ABTS radical scavenging activity, and TPC values. In general, as expected, antioxidant activity and TPC values increased in parallel with ASP content. In this context, quark cheese samples with 1.5% ASP addition were observed to have the highest DPPH radical scavenging activity (16.80%), ABTS radical scavenging activity (23.29%), and TPC value (1841.79 mg GAE/kg). In conclusion, it was demonstrated that the use of ASP in quark cheese production increases the functionality of the product by improving antioxidant activity and TPC.