Olivera Šimurina

Relationship of Physicochemical Characteristics with Sensory Profile of Cookies Enriched with Medicinal Herbs

In this work, a range of model cookies enriched with different quantities of medicinal herbs, applied in two forms (pulverized mixture and extract), were studied to compare and describe relationships between physicochemical and sensory data. Multivariate statistical methods were applied to estimate relationships in the analyzed data. Analysis of variance showed that the majority of analyzed parameters were highly significant in discriminating among the samples (p < 0.05), which supported the usefulness of their application in characterizing the quality profile of enriched cookies. Principal component analysis on physicochemical data revealed that cookies at the same enrichment level showed more similarities. Principal component analysis on sensory data exhibited a larger separation between the samples with increasing enrichment levels, especially in the case of pulverized herbal mixture. According to partial least squares regression, two significant partial least squares components explained 92.7% and predicted 78.0% variation in the data. The most important parameters in discriminating between the cookies enriched with medicinal herbs were lightness, red tonality, and hardness. The selected physicochemical parameters could be used in future studies to evaluate variously enriched cookies by establishing models and investigating the predictability of sensory quality.

Sugar beet molasses as an ingredient to enhance the nutritional and functional properties of gluten-free cookies.

Abstract Sugar beet molasses is a raw material with high potential to be a functional ingredient in baked goods. This paper investigated the nutritional and functional properties of gluten-free cookies enriched with sugar beet molasses. At all enrichment levels and forms tested (liquid and dry), the addition of beet molasses improved the micronutrient pattern and antioxidative status of gluten-free cookies. The cookies prepared with molasses were significantly higher in potassium, magnesium, calcium, iron, betaine, total phenolics and DPPH radical scavenging abilities. Molasses contributed to wider spectra of phenolic compounds. The dominating phenolic compounds in the molasses-enriched cookies were catechin, ferulic, syringic and vanillic acid. Molasses also contributed to the presence of p-hydroxybenzoic acid in the cookies. Addition of molasses increased the content of hydroxymethyfurfural in the cookies, but not above values commonly reported for this product type. Molasses addition improved the overall acceptance of gluten-free cookies up to 30% enrichment level.

Sensory profile and preference mapping of cookies enriched with medicinal herbs

abstract The sensory profile and acceptance of cookies enriched with medicinal herbs mixture “Vitalplant,” aimed at body weight regulation and metabolism enhancement, were evaluated. Seven cookies were prepared varying the content of powder and extract mixture (0, 2, 4, and 6 g/100 g flour basis, respectively). The descriptors used by an expert sensory panel (n = 8) that best separated samples were: appearance (shape, uniformity, surface, and color), texture (structure break, firmness, and chewiness), odor, and flavor. Preference mapping was assessed using multidimensional scaling on data obtained through an acceptability test (n = 64) with a 5-point hedonic scale. The hedonic responses showed significant differences (p < 0.05) between the cookies. The first three principal components captured 70.90% of the total variance, indicating the complex structure in consumer preference patterns. External preference mapping showed potential for predicting consumers overall acceptance of the cookies using five descriptive attributes that drove the preference of the six consumer clusters. The vector model was selected as the model of choice for most clusters. The addition of medicinal herbs in cookies is feasible, based on the sensory results, which may facilitate marketing of functional food with sensorial qualities equivalent to conventional products.

Application of Principal Component Analysis in Assessment of Relation Between the Parameters of Technological Quality of Wheat Grains Treated with Inert Dusts Against Rice Weevil (Sitophilus oryzae L.)

Quality parameters of several wheat grain lots (low vitreous and high vitreous grains, non-infested and infested with rice weevils, (Sitophilus oryzae L.) treated with inert dusts (natural zeolite, two diatomaceous earths originating from Serbia and a commercial product Protect-It®) were investigated. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to investigate the classification of treated grain lots and to assess how attributes of technological quality contribute to this classification. This research showed that vitreousness (0.95) and test weight (0.93) contributed most to the first principal component whereas extensigraph area (-0.76) contributed to the second component. The determined accountability of the total variability by the first component was around 55%, while with the second it was 18%, which means that those two dimensions together account for around 70% of total variability of the observed set of variables. Principal component analysis (PCA) of data set was able to distinguish among the various treatments of wheat lots. It was revealed that inert dust treatments produce different effects depending on the degree of endosperm vitreousness.

Breadmaking performance and textural changes during storage of composite breads made from spelt wheat and different forms of amaranth grain

The objectives of the present study were to assess the baking properties of composite spelt wheat–amaranth blends and to study the staling of composite breads during a six-day storage. Different forms of amaranth grains were added to spelt bread formulation: native amaranth flour and flour from popped amaranth, including their scalded and non-scalded variants. Native amaranth flour (both scalded and non-scalded) gave loaves with the highest volume and contributed to significantly softer crumb but not in comparison to the control bread. Crumb resilience did not show significant differences among the breads but there were differences in the crumb stress relaxation parameters which indicated certain influence on the crumb viscoelastic properties. During storage, all samples developed firmer and less elastic crumbs. Drying loss and staling degree significantly increased with increased storage time. The staling rate was the highest in the bread with non-scalded amaranth flours (native and flour from popped amaranth). The changes in the crumb textural and elastic properties caused by staling turned significant after six days of storage. In general, inclusion of different forms of amaranth flour did not alter the staling of breads and they exerted similar behaviour during storage.

Sugar beet molasses: Properties and applications in osmotic dehydration of fruits and vegetables

Molasses is an important by-product of sugar beet or sugar cane refining industry and it was one of the first sweeteners used in human nutrition. Sugar cane molasses has unique characteristics that can make it suitable for application in food industry, especially in confectionery and bakery products. On the other hand, sugar beet molasses has not had greater application in the human diet, primarily because of its strong smell and taste of the beet, which makes it unattractive for consumption. Since recent investigations showed that sugar beet molasses can be used as a hypertonic solution in osmotic dehydration of different materials of plant and animal origin, the objective of this work was to review recently studied sugar beet molasses in terms of its applications in osmotic dehydrations of fruits and vegetables. Previous studies showed that sugar beet molasses is an excellent medium for osmotic dehydration of fruits and vegetables (apple, carrot, plum, etc.) primarily due to a high content of dry matter (80%, w/w) and specific nutrient content. An important advantage of using sugar beet molasses as a hypertonic solution is an enrichment of the dehydrated material in minerals and vitamins, which penetrate from molasses into the plant tissue. Concentration of sugar beet molasses solution and immersion time had the biggest influence on the process of osmotic dehydration of fruit and vegetables, while the temperature of the solution was the least influential parameter. The effect of immersion time on the kinetics of osmotic dehydration in sugar beet molasses increases with an increase in concentration of hypertonic solution. Fruit and vegetables dehydrated in sugar beet molasses had a higher dry matter content compared to samples treated in sucrose solutions. Besides, application of sugar beet molasses in osmotic dehydration of fruits and vegetables had some other advantages such as lower cost of molasses compared to sugar and its liquid aggregate state. Molasses caused darkening of osmotically treated materials due to transfer of colouring compounds (melanoidins) from molasses solution to plant tissue. The intensity of this darkening depended on immersion time and concentration of molasses solution. An increasing trend in tissue firmness observed in dehydrated samples after 1 h of immersion was proportional to the concentration of molasses solution.

Selection of Optimal Sensory Properties for the Recognition of Wholemeal Bread

The aim of this article was to present the sensory evaluation of commercial wholemeal bread as a discriminative tool by selecting its optimum sensory properties in comparison with two control samples. Generated data were subjected to the multivariate analysis of variance and discriminative analysis. The obtained results showed that sensory evaluation could be a very useful tool for recognition of faked wholemeal bread with the exception of bread made from ready-to-bake mixtures. The color of the samples was the optimal property for the distinction of faked wholemeal bread.

Quality improvement of gluten-free bread based on soybean and enriched with sugar beet molasses

The aim of this work was to improve the quality of gluten-free bread made with high content of soy flour and enriched with sugar beet molasses by incorporating ingredients with a potential to simultaneously enhance the nutritional quality of the breads. The following ingredients were used: pea protein isolate, pea fibre and chia seeds. The chosen ingredients exerted positive effects on bread quality. They promoted volume increase and crumb softening. In this respect, the most effective ingredients were pea protein isolate (at 1% supplementation level), pеа fibre (at up to 2% supplementation level) and chia seeds (at 1% supplementation level). The sensory analysis revealed that pea fibre and chia addition at 1 and 2% supplementation level provided bread with higher scores regarding overall acceptance, crumb texture and taste. At 1% supplementation level, there was not found statistically significant difference in sensory attributes of bread supplemented with pea protein isolate in comparison to the control. However, pea protein isolate was found to strongly diminish bread taste at 4% supplementation level due to presence of beany taste.

Effects of quantity and layers number of low trans margarines on puff pastry quality

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of puff pastry margarine with reduced content of trans isomers in production of puff pastry with enhanced nutritional value. Experiments were carried out on the basis of 3 factorial design, wherein the independent variables were the amount of puff pastry margarines (30, 40 and 50%, on flour weight) and number of margarine layers formed during the dough processing (108, 144, and 256). In order to determine the optimum values of independent parameters, the study was focused on defining of relevant qualitative indicators of the final product. By investigation of influence of the type of puff pastry margarine (ML1 and ML2) on the quality of puff pastry, it was determined that physico-chemical properties of margarine ML1 were not optimal for puff pastry production. Margarine ML1 had lower hardness by 50-60%, lower SFC by 20-35% and worse thermal characteristics compared to margarine ML2. Only by application of the maximum amount of margarine ML1 and 144 margarine layers a satisfactory quality of puff pastry was obtained: the lift of 2.89, hardness of 17.7 kgs, volume 83.6 cm and the total number of points of 14.8. Because of its better technological characteristics, margarine ML2 is favorable for making puff pastry. Significantly better physical properties and excellent pastry quality was obtained in samples with margarine ML2 in an amount of 50% of margarine and 256 layers: higher lift by 45%, volume by 25% and the total number of points by about 20% compared to sample ML1 with the best quality.

The influence of plant protein on the properties of dough and the quality of wholemeal spelt bread

The paper presents the effect of a soy protein concentrate (protein content 65%) as a substituent (substituting 20% wholegrain spelt flour) and a pea protein isolate (protein concentration 90%) as a substituent (substituting 5% and 10% wholegrain spelt flour) on the rheological characteristics of spelt dough and on the physical and sensory characteristics of spelt bread enriched with proteins. The stability of dough supplemented with a soy protein concentrate has turned out to be higher than the stability of dough supplemented with pea protein isolates. It is probably the result of different protein behaviour in soybeans and peas. The applied ingredients have manifested different effects on the specific bread volume. In comparison to the control bread, the specific volume of bread samples have been reduced significantly with addition of a 20% soy protein concentrate and a 10% pea protein isolate (from 1.83 ml/g to 1.39 and 1.38 respectively). On the other hand, addition of a 5% pea protein isolate has not brought to a significant decline in the specific bread volume. Addition of a 10% pea protein isolate has increased the chewiness while this parameter has not changed significantly in relation to the control bread with addition of 5% pea protein and 20% soy protein. Spelt bread with 5% pea isolated protein is the most acceptable according to the overall sensory acceptance among all the analysed samples.