Abstract
The aim of this work was to evaluate the optical
and mechanical properties as well as the sensorial attributes
(colour, spreadability, taste with and without bread, adhesiveness
and the global preference) of 30 °Brix strawberry
spreadable products. A total of 18 different spreadable products
were obtained according to the type of sugar (isomaltulose
or sucrose), the elaboration method (wet or dry
osmotic dehydration with or without external liquid phase
removal) and the percentage of pectin used for their formulation.
The results showed that neither the pectin percentage
nor the type of sugar had an influence on the colorimetric
coordinates (L*, a* and b*). Nevertheless, dry osmotic
dehydration with external liquid phase removal seemed to
better preserve the characteristic fresh strawberry colour.
Regarding texture, a lower liquid phase volume and higher
fruit/solution ratios led to spreadable products with higher
consistency and adhesiveness values [consistency values:
5.5 (0.4) vs. 2.9 (0.1) (1 % of pectin), 6.92 (0.08) vs. 4.3
(0.3) (1.5 % of pectin) and 10 (1) vs. 5.2 (0.3) (2 % of
pectin); adhesiveness values: 0.82 (0.07) vs. 0.32 (0.04)
(1 % of pectin), 1.21 (0.04) vs. 0.72 (0.08) (1.5 % of pectin)
and 1.8 (0.3) vs. 1.00 (0.06) (2 % of pectin)]. Moreover,
using sucrose with 2 % pectin instead of isomaltulose produced
a similar effect. Concerning the sensorial evaluation
of spreadable products formulated with isolmaltulose, the
taste was the parameter which conditioned the global preference
by panelists. Regarding spreadability, the products
ranging from 4 to 5 Ns for consistency and from 0.6 to
0.9 Ns for adhesiveness were the most appreciated.
