Influência do pH nas propriedades tecnológicas da aquafaba

Abstract

The consumer trend in recent years has been the search for knowledge in the food area, consuming more consciously and avoiding products with high carbon emissions in their production and distribution process. Furthermore, research has been promoted in the search for alternatives to replace animal-based foods, both at an industrial and homemade level. In this context, aquafaba has been indicated as a promising ingredient due to its emulsifying and foaming capabilities depending on its composition, mainly due to the theory of soluble proteins originating from the cooking of chickpeas. The present work aimed to evaluate the effect of pH on the foaming and emulsifying properties of aquafaba, aiming to determine the pH range in which the solubility of aquafaba proteins occurs and understand how this can interfere with the emulsion capacity, stability and foamability. Aquafaba was obtained from cooking chickpeas in an autoclave and 10% citric acid (g/mL) solution was used as a pH regulator for ranges 3, 4 and 5, with fresh aquafaba regulated at pH 6.05. The analyzes consisted of determining the proximal composition of the chickpea, and obtained values were close in relation to the literature. The soluble protein concentration found was below of expectations, however, disparities in this analysis were also observed among other authors. The technological properties of aquafaba were explored, where it was verified that the foam formation capacity and stability in the standardized sample with pH 4 proved to be more stable in relation to time, but all samples remained below the percentage achieved with egg white. In relation to the emulsifying activity index, the standardized sample with pH 4 also proved to be more stable in relation to other pH ranges and the fresh sample. The results demonstrated that the use of aquafaba standardized at pH 4 within the ranges studied is promising as it showed improved results in its foaming and emulsifying properties.