Valorization of Jameed into a Technofunctional Dairy Powder: Linking Structure, Rheology, and Antioxidant Functionality to Food Industry Applications

Abstract

Jameed is a traditional dried, fermented dairy product widely consumed in Jordan and the Levant. This study evaluated jameed powder as a functional dairy ingredient by characterizing its physicochemical, structural, rheological, techno-functional, and antioxidant properties to support its use in food applications and to provide baseline data for parallel work on bioactive antimicrobial and antioxidant peptides.Two Jordanian samples were analyzed: MS (south) and MZ (north). MS had higher moisture and water activity than MZ (0.164 vs. 0.117). Protein was measured at 53–54%, fat composition at 9.0–9.5%, and mineral ash at 11–12%. The jameed samples showed a trend towards lighter color, as indicated by higher L* values for MS. The jameed dispersions, once reconstituted, showed flow behavior that was dependent on the formulation, and the power-law K values ranged from 0.0179 to 0.0252 kPa·sⁿ, showing no consistent relationship with the concentration. The FTIR spectra presented bands at 3269, 2927, 1625, and 1529 cm⁻¹, and were dominated by the lipid and protein functional groups. The results of the oscillatory rheology showed that the jameed formulation MZ had a greater elastic storage modulus (G′) than MS, and that in the main formulations G′ > G″, which showed predominantly elastic, weak gel behavior. The temperature sweep rheology of formulation MZ showed greater restructuring of the gel network due to increased thermal stimulus, indicating that MZ had greater responsiveness of the gel network to heating.When studied using the DPPH and ABTS methods, MZ showed greater radical scavenging activity than MS. These studies suggest that jameed powder is a very promising new dairy ingredient for use in the food system.