Study effect of infrared radiation on qualitative attributes of chicken nugget coated by batter containing Balangu gum

Chicken nugget is one of the most popular convenience food in the world. Because of high-fat content in preparation of nuggets with regular methods that causes obesity and other related diseases, other techniques like pretreatment using gum and drying came into attention. In this study, chicken nuggets coated with batter containing Balangu gum (0.25 and 0.5%) were cooked by infrared-frying method in three heat fluxes of 18.5, 21.6, 24.7 kW/m2 for 12 minutes. The effects of the process and gum concentration on moisture content, fat, total weight loss, color parameters (a*, b* and L*) and texture properties of this product were investigated. The sample containing 0.5% gum had the highest moisture content (51.80%) and by increasing the power of the infrared radiation, moisture content decreased. The lowest fat content was related to the sample with a heat flux of 24.7kW/m2 containing 0.5% Balangu gum. By decreasing gum concentration and decreasing the power of the infrared radiation, fat content of samples increased. Also, Color attribute L* which shows lightness had the lowest amount in the control sample because of higher heat during the cooking process. The hardness of chicken nugget in various treatments did not change significantly, which can be important in consumer acceptance, but cohesiveness of samples treated using infrared-gum treatment showed significant difference compared to the control sample (P<0.05).