(P b 0.05) in the protein content of the products. The explanation
of this behavior may be related to the gel formation of the polysaccharide
inulin that increases the protein retention (Hennelly et al., 2006).
With respect to the fat content, as expected, the reduced fat samples
showed less fat content than the control sample, achieving a reduction
between 20 and 35%. With the increase of inulin and protein content,
the reduction of the fat content was lower. This fact could be explained
considering the oil retention capacity of the matrix protein–inulin,
which reduced the defatting during the cooking. Regarding samples
with protein content of 2.5% or 3% (w/w), the incorporation of inulin
(samples P2.5 I2 and P3 I2) did not affect the moisture content
after cooking (P N 0.05); however, an increase in the fat retention
was observed (P b 0.05). This behavior suggested that inulin retains
better fat than water, corroborating the results obtained in the inulin
characterization.
With the incorporation of inulin and/or plasma proteins, the ash
content increased slightly with respect to the control. This can be explained
taking into account the network of inulin–protein. Similar results
were reported by Hennelly et al. (2006). The pH of the samples
was 5.96±0.03 without statistically significant differences among the
formulations.