Effects of prebiotic compounds on sensory quality of meat
burgers
In order to find the best FOS and inulin amounts to be added to
the burgers and how to add them, to ensure not only the highest
final prebiotics concentration but also a good product taste, two
concentrations for each prebiotic compound were screened. The
selected amounts of prebiotics were chosen considering that the
prebiotic effect is achieved at a minimum daily intake close to 3 g
for 100 g of food product (European Parliament, 2006). To
L. Angiolillo et al. / LWT - Food Science and Technology 62 (2015) 697e703 699
summarize the findings of sensory analysis, the sole overall quality
of cooked samples was reported (Fig. 1), since it well represents the
trend of the other evaluated sensory attributes (flavor, oiliness,
juiciness, tenderness) and better underlines the differences between
samples. The addition of FOS and inulin in the form of water
solution improved the overall quality because samples appeared
more similar to the CNTR sample, camouflaging the prebiotic
addition and the flavor was recorded less sweet respect to the same
compound added in the form of powder. As regards the raw samples
(data not shown), the addition of FOS and inulin in the form of
powder improved the oiliness and the juiciness, determining a
more compact structure, but at the same time it compromised the
overall quality because the visual aspect was negatively affected by
the presence of little white spots, corresponding to the added
powder. For this reason, panelists rejected the use of FOS and inulin
in the form of powder. On the contrary, the addition of these
components in the form of water solution improved the sensory
quality; in fact, in this way, the structure was juicier and tender also
respect to the CNTR sample and the overall quality was more
positively perceived respect to the previous formulations. Most
probably, this is because water solubilization of FOS and inulin
avoids the white spots on the burgers. As a result of this panel test it
was decided to introduce FOS (6 g) and inulin (9 g)in the form of
water solution (FOS6-WS) (IN9-WS) because they turned out to be
less sweet and with absence of white spots.
As regard the oat bran addition, selected not only to improve the
final prebiotic retention but also the sensory acceptability, Fig. 2
reports data of the overall quality of all cooked meat products
with oat bran. As can be observed, cooked meat formulations
containing the foam showed better sensory scores in terms of
general acceptability, mainly because of their improved structure. A
higher score for the flavor attribute was observed for samples with
foam respect to the addition of oat bran as powder. Moreover, the
figure highlights that the overall quality score increased as the
concentration of oat bran increased (seeOat40-WPF), thus suggesting
the relevant importance of foams properly enriched with
oat bran (40 g to enhance product quality). The only appreciable
consideration on raw samples (data not shown) is that the use of
oat bran in the form of powder determined an excessive compact
structure with low tenderness and juiciness, while the use of all the