Ljubinko Lević

Quality Characteristics and Antioxidant Properties of Breads Supplemented with Sugar Beet Molasses-Based Ingredients

Osmotic dehydration in sugar beet molasses as hypertonic medium was used to treat apples, plums, carrots and cabbage. Following the treatment, the fruits/vegetables were dried and ground. The obtained powders or pure beet molasses were incorporated into white wheat bread at 5 and 10% levels (flour basis). The results showed that the mineral content (K, Mg, Ca) and antioxidant potential of breads were significantly improved. The most marked was the increase in K content: 89.1% (bread with molasses)-94.1% (bread with plum), at 5% level. The highest increase in antioxidant potential was measured in the breads made with plum (62.5–81.6% for 5 and 10% levels, respectively).

Re-use of Osmotic Solution OF OSMOTIC SOLUTION

In this paper the re-use of osmotic solution after osmotic treatment has been studied. A large amount of used osmotic solution remaining after the process is one of the major unsolved problems of osmotic treatment process. This problem has both ecological and economic aspects that should be concerned.Pork meat cubes were treated in three different osmotic solutions diluted with distilled water (R1 -sugar beet molasses, R2 – solution of salt and sucrose and R3 - combination of R1 and R2 solutions in a 1:1 mass ratio). Osmotic process has been observed during 5 hours, at temperature of 35oC and atmospheric pressure. Osmotic treatment has been performed simultaneously in concentrated solutions and diluted solutions (dilutions were obtained by mixing the solution and water in the mass ratio of 7:1 and 3:1). Parameters monitored during osmotic treatment were: dry mater content (DMC), water loss (WL), solid gain (SG) and osmotic dehydration efficiency index (DEI).Maximum values of these parameters were obtained in the dehydration with concentrated solutions, while recorded values in diluted solutions were much lower.The results show that the least effect on the osmotic process efficiency, when the osmotic concentration is lowered, has been observed for solution R3. This conclusion indicates that molasses is good osmotic solution with the possibility of re-using in successive processes of osmotic dehydration, with minimal treatment of reconstitution to original values of concentration.