Enhanced nutritional and health benefits of buckwheat fiber-enriched yogurt with astaxanthin supplementation: a comprehensive analysis of storage quality

This study aims to evaluate the potential of Kavılca fiber and astaxanthin to enhance yogurts’ nutritional content and antioxidant capacity, thereby contributing to developing a novel food product with significant health benefits. In this regard, the effects of different concentrations (1%, 1.5%, and 2%) of buckwheat fiber and astaxanthin on the quality properties of yogurt during a 21-day storage period were investigated. Enriching yogurts with buckwheat fiber and astaxanthin improved the viability, viscosity, water-holding capacity, and antioxidant activity of yogurt bacteria. The results indicated that the presence of astaxanthin had a positive impact on radical scavenging activity in samples, with CKA3 showing the highest radical scavenging activity (99.46%) after a storage period of 21 days while also exhibiting minimum serum separation among groups CKA3. Additionally, color parameters were significantly influenced by the addition of buckwheat fiber and astaxanthin (p < 0.05). The addition of buckwheat fiber and astaxanthin also positively affected the textural properties of yogurt samples during the storage period, and the most preferred sample was CKA1, along with the control samples. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2025.