Desarrollo de preparados texturizantes clean label

Resumen

Consumers concerned about health, sustainability and welfare have increased in recent years. For this reason, the new clean label and plant-based trends are on the rise. More and more companies want to launch products without additives and preservatives, more natural and less processed. In addition, the interest in purely vegetable products is growing, due to the increase population that wants to completely eliminate or reduce meat consumption from their diet. The use of additives is necessary for the formulation of food products since these not only ensure their safety and extend their useful life, but also have texturizing, thickening and gelling functions. The analogue elaboration of animal origin products (meat derivatives and others such as cheese) requires the use of this type of ingredients to ensure that the product has a texture similar to the original product. Therefore, as well as additives and preservatives, animal origin products sometimes are not well seen by consumers, who prefer these kinds of products to be as natural as possible. However, there are ingredients from plants with texturizing, gelling and/or thickening capacity, which could be used for this purpose. Therefore, the objective of this doctoral thesis was the expansion and modification of the range of preparations offered by the collaborated company based on the clean label criteria for the production of plant-based products. Initially, a study was proposed on the general vision of plant-based products with a clean label by different groups of consumers (omnivores, vegans, vegetarians and flexitarians). The results obtained indicated that the perception of this type of products was different depending on the diet of the consumers. Omnivores did not differentiate between clean label and original label vegan and vegetarian products. However, consumers who reduce or eliminate their consumption of meat and meat products perceived clean label products differently than products with the original label, preferring "more natural" products. In addition, it was seen that this population seems to be more aware of the environment. Next, a search was carried out for natural vegetable ingredients with texturizing power. The selected ingredients being food fibres from different sources (pea fibre, potato fibre, bamboo fibre, citrus fibre, three types of Plantago ovata fibres, and two fibre mixtures, one with bamboo, psyllium, and citrus, and the other with pea, sugarcane, and bamboo). In order to know its texturizing capacity, we proceeded to study their techno-functional characteristics and, especially, their gelling capacity. As more relevant results, it was observed that the fibres from P. ovata or psyllium more formed stable gels at lower concentrations than the other fibres, with or without heat treatment. Furthermore, heat treatment increased the hardness of these gels. It was also seen that the content of minerals such as iron and their antioxidant capacity was remarkable. Once the P. ovata fibres were selected as the main texturizers, they were evaluated in different food matrices (spreads and sausages). In both matrices it was observed that the addition of psyllium, at different concentrations, increased the firmness and consistency of the products. The use of psyllium fibre PW (Plantago White) should be highlighted, since, in addition to working as a texturizer, it was the one that minimized the colour differences with respect to the control samples.