Evaluation and comparison of sensory, color, and rheological properties of low fat cream containing Konjac gum by Principal component analysis (PCA) and Partial least squares (PLS) regression) regression

In recent years, with increasing public awareness about the harmful effect of fat consumption, demand for low-fat dairy products has increased significantly. On the other hand, fat reduction reduces the rheological and sensory properties of food, such as taste, flavor, texture and mouth feel. Therefore, it is difficult to produce a low-fat product with the same characteristics of high-fat product. In order to imitate different functions of fat in low-fat foods, such as consistency of the product, mouth feel, color, flavor and rheological properties should be considered. Fat substitutes are macromolecules that are used to provide all or part of the fat functions in a food product and produce less calorie intake than fat. Konjac is a neutral and polysaccharide hydrocolloid that is used as a gelling agent in traditional Asian foods due to its high ability in absorbing water. In addition, it is one of the most viscous dietary fiber. The use of konjac in western countries is expanding as a component in functional foods. Konjac can therefore be used as an appropriate substitute for fat in dairy products such as cream, which in addition to reducing the amount of fat can maintain and even improve the physical and other properties of the product. The purpose of this study was to produce low-fat cream with good nutritional value, variety in formulation, as well as lower prices.

Fresh cream of 30% fat and pasteurized milk were purchased from Razavi Dairy Company and konjac gum was provided from Food Chem (China). First, the gum was mixed with the pasteurized milk at 45°C. Then the mixture was added to the cream of 30% fat to reach the fat content of 18– 25%. The final mixture, after homogenization in the different specified values of pressure, was pasteurized at 85°c for 15 min, and then packed in polyethylene bottles and kept in the refrigerator (4ºC) until theday of experiment. The effect of amounts of Kanjac gum (0.2- 0.6), the amount of fat (18- 25%) and homogenization pressure (100- 200 bar) on the sensory, color, and rheological characteristics of low-fat cream were investigated

The results of evaluating the characteristics measured using the response surface methodology indicated that the hardness, consistency, adhesiveness, b*, sensory score of texture, sensory score of aroma and overall acceptance of samples significantly increased with an increasing homogenization pressure. Also increasing fat content caused an increasing the adhesiveness, L*, b*, sensory score of taste, sensory score of aroma and total acceptance of samples. Increasing the konjac gum content also increased hardness, consistency, adhesiveness, and sensory score of texture. The distribution of responses in the principal component also showed that the instrumental measures like hardness and consistency were close to the sensory score of texture of the samples. This proximity of these attributes indicated that the properties measured by the panelists were approximately equivalent to the parameters which were measured by instrumental methods. Also, the results of the correlation coefficient between sensory and instrumental measurements showed that the highest correlation between hardness and sensory score of texture (a strong positive linear relationship (0.774), and between the consistency and sensory score of texture (a strong positive linear relationship (0.760)). Rheological and sensory properties in products such as cream, play an important role in the processing and marketability of the product. In cream, these characteristics are mainly influenced by the method of production, the amount of fat, and potential additives used. The results of this study showed that konjac gum as a hydrocolloid can be used as a proper substitute for fat in the cream, and with suitable sensory, color and rheological properties. The results of this study about the correlation between sensory properties and instrumental specification showed that the properties measured by the panelists are approximately equivalent to the parameters measured by the instrumental methods. Therefore, the results of instrumental methods in most cases can well predict the sensory properties of the cream and then can be replaced it.