Abstract:Objective To address health risks associated with the high sugar and calorie content in traditional condensed milk, and to reduce sugar content and fortify nutrients of traditional condensed milk by replacing sugar with low-sweetness prebiotics as the primary component, compounded with sugar alcohols and high-intensity sweeteners.Methods Low-sweetness prebiotics (galacto-oligosaccharides and fructo-oligosaccharides) are used as the main ingredients in sugar substitutes, compounded with sugar alcohols (erythritol and maltitol) and high-intensity sweeteners (stevioside and mogrosides). Then, the optimal substitute ratio is optimized through fuzzy mathematics sensory evaluation combined with D-optimal mixture design. Additionally, the effect on the sensory quality, texture characteristics, and browning degree of condensed milk is analyzed.Results The optimal sugar substitute formulation is composed of 9.35% galacto-oligosaccharides, 0.59% fructo-oligosaccharides, 0.04% erythritol, and 0.02% rosmarinic acid, demonstrating 87.20% similarity in taste profile to sucrose. At a sugar substitute content of 25%, the condensed milk maintains stable texture characteristics, with a browning degree of only 1.23±0.03, significantly lower than that of conventional condensed milk (P<0.05).Conclusion This sugar substitute solution effectively reduces browning reactions while maintaining the texture characteristics of condensed milk, demonstrating both process feasibility and health advantages.