18F-20 |
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M. A. PLAHAR, Y.-C. Hung, and K. H. McWatters. Dept. of Food Science and Technology, Univ. of Georgia, 1109 Experiment Street, 180 Melton Building, Griffin, GA 30223 Deep-fat frying has accelerated U.S. acceptance of ethnic foods and bolder flavors, but also resulted in increased obesity and heart-related diseases. Akara is a novel food product made from seasoned, fried cowpea paste; however, its fat content can be as high as 20 to 25%. Soybean flour and curdlan have been successfully used to reduce the fat content of fried foods, and we hypothesize that these modifiers will reduce the fat content of akara. The objective was to incorporate soybean flour and curdlan into akara formulation and determine the effect on the fat content as well as the physical properties of the paste and product. Physical characteristics of cowpea paste were determined and proximate analysis was done on the product. Paste moisture content of akara containing levels of both soybean flour and curdlan that produced optimum nutritional quality was modified to obtain akara with characteristics comparable to the control. At 20% substitution, soybean flour lowered the fat content of akara by 15% and increased the protein content by 30% without significantly affecting the firmness or the color of akara, and the addition of 1% curdlan decreased the fat content by 30%. However, the addition of curdlan significantly increased the firmness of akara. Increasing the moisture content of paste containing 20% soybean flour and 1% curdlan resulted in an increase in the foaming property, and consequently an increase in the oil absorption. Optimum results were obtained for paste with 63% moisture content. Firmness of the product was similar to the control and the fat content was lower (17%) compared to the control (26%). These results suggest that, while soybean flour and curdlan were effective in reducing the fat content of akara, proper hydration of cowpea composite paste was essential for producing akara that had similar physical/functional properties to traditionally made, good quality akara.
Session 18F, Product Development: General
2005 IFT Annual Meeting, July 15-20 - New Orleans, Louisiana |