Physical and sensory characteristics of cheese-flavored expanded snacks obtained using butyric acid and cysteine as aroma precursors: Effects of extrusion temperature and sunflower oil content
Introduction
Expanded snacks are widely consumed around the world, highly appreciated by consumers and are marketed in various flavors, shapes, compositions, prices and brands (Delcour & Hoseney, 2010; Fellows, 2000). Such products are obtained through a thermoplastic extrusion, followed by post-extrusion flavoring, conventional way of flavoring snacks in the food industry. A mixture of a lipid vehicle (oil or hydrogenated vegetal fat), salt and additives (commercial aroma and flavor enhancers) is sprinkled on the snacks, increasing the lipid and salt content of the snacks, as well the caloric value, reason why these products are highly criticized (Moubarac et al., 2012). Healthier versions of this product may be obtained using pre-extrusion flavoring (Bhandari, D'Arcy, & Young, 2001).
Pre-extrusion flavoring can be performed by adding flavoring agents to the raw material to be extruded: commercial aroma or volatile compounds (Conti-Silva, Bastos, & Arêas, 2012; Menis, Milani, Jordano, Boscolo, & Conti-Silva, 2013; Milani, Menis, Jordano, Boscolo, & Conti-Silva, 2014; Yuliani, Torley, & Bhandari, 2009), encapsulated volatile compounds (Yuliani, Bhandari, Rutgers, & D'Arcy, 2004; Yuliani, Torley, D'Arcy, Nicholson, & Bhandari, 2006, Yuliani, Torley, D'Arcy, Nicholson & Bhandari, 2006), and aroma precursors (Majcher & Jelén, 2007). Pre-extrusion flavoring enables a uniform distribution of volatile compounds in the product and improve the stability against oxidation because the compounds are encapsulated within the matrix of the product. On the other hand, loss of volatile compounds may occur during the extrusion process, requiring addition of higher amounts of flavoring agents, increasing costs and prejudicing the extrudate texture (Bhandari et al., 2001), critical attributes of quality for expanded snacks.
Considering the wide range of options for flavoring agents and snack flavors, knowing consumer preferences regarding flavors is essential for the success of a new product. Because of this, market research was conducted in Brazil (Menis-Henrique, Janzantti, & Conti-Silva, 2017) and cheese was found as the preferred flavor for expanded corn-based snacks. This result was confirmed through a rank preference test with different flavor snacks. From this, tests were performed, and butyric acid and cysteine as cheese aroma precursors were defined for using in this study. These compounds are precursors of the cheese flavor detected in cheese itself (Martínez-Cuesta, Peláez, & Requena, 2013) and butyric acid has a particular contribution to cheese odor as well (Flavornet).
After the elaboration of cheese expanded corn-based snacks, our aim was to investigate the effects of extrusion temperature and sunflower oil content on the physical and sensory characteristics of cheese-flavored expanded snacks using butyric acid and cysteine as aroma precursors. Temperature was chosen because it is one of the most important processing variables for producing snacks with desired physical properties. Moreover, the oil content was chosen considering the known functions of lipids in foods, like vehicle and modulator of odor and flavor, and improvement of texture and mouthfeel (Taylor & Linforth, 2010; Voilley & Etiévant, 2006). Finally, a healthier version of expanded snacks is presented, with improvement in the nutritive value and with adequate physical and sensory characteristics of quality.
Section snippets
Material
Corn grits (Master SP Alimentos, Capela do Alto, Brazil) were used for extrusion. Salt (Cisne, Cabo Frio, Brazil) and sunflower oil (Liza, Mairinque, Brazil) were used for flavoring, as well the flavor enhancer monosodium glutamate (Ajinomoto, Limeira, Brazil). As aroma precursors of cheese, amino acid cysteine (l-cysteine HCL anhydrous, purity > 98.5%, Pharma Nostra, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and food-grade butyric acid (code W222119, purity > 99%, Sigma-Aldrich, Milwaukee, USA) were used.
Preparation of the corn grits for extrusion processing
Physical characteristics of the snacks
The cheese-flavored expanded corn-based snacks presented an expansion ratio ranging from 4.2 to 4.7, density from 0.09 to 0.13 g/cm3 and cutting force from 21.3 to 43.0 N. The expanded snacks showed greater expansion and lower density than those reported by Conti-Silva et al. (2012) and Menis et al. (2013), whose studies had extruded corn grits with three volatile compounds added, while the cutting force ranged in a similar way to those studies (from 21.0 to 51.6 N). Less dense extruded snacks
Conclusions
The snacks flavored using butyric acid and cysteine as aroma precursors presented desirable physical and sensory characteristics, which were influenced by extrusion temperature and sunflower oil content. The extrusion temperature showed to be an important factor especially for the physical characteristics and sensory attributes as appearance and texture of the snacks, while the sunflower oil content had a particular importance to cheese flavor intensity and sensory attributes as odor and flavor
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Michele Eliza Cortazzo Menis-Henrique: Conceptualization, Writing - review & editing, Investigation. Natália Soares Janzantti: Conceptualization, Supervision, Writing - review & editing. Magali Monteiro: Supervision. Ana Carolina Conti-Silva: Conceptualization, Supervision, Writing - review & editing.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful for financial support from the São Paulo Research Foundation, or FAPESP (grant numbers 2013/00944-9 and 2014/24119-0).
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