Avaliação comparativa de preparado alimentício enriquecido com proteínas de origem vegetal e animal

Abstract

The consumption of proteins of animal origin is much higher when compared to proteins extracted from vegetables. However, animal-derived proteins have their production linked to environmental effects that are often the subject of discussions, such as deforestation, the use of water resources, and the greenhouse effect. One way to reduce the consumption of proteins of animal origin is by enriching food products with alternative proteins (vegetables), making the food as nutritious as those of animal origin. However, alternative foods must maintain quality and acceptance parameters to resemble conventional foods (of animal origin) to allow substitutions and/or mixtures. In this sense, this study aimed to formulate a peanutbased food preparation (paçoca type) enriched with plant and animal proteins and evaluate quality parameters related to color (colorimetry), texture profile (TPA), and the near-infrared (NIR) region. To better understand the existing similarities and differences, the samples were evaluated by principal component analysis (PCA, Principal Component Analysis) regarding the influence of time, measuring all parameters (color, TPA and NIR) on the day of preparation, after 7 days, and after 14 days of preparation. Spectroscopy in the near-infrared region proved to be the most efficient technique to distinguish samples regarding the effect of time after production. The relationship between the techniques used by the common dimension analysis (ComDim) was also investigated in an attempt to evaluate the relationship between the color parameters, the texture profile parameters (TPA), and the regions of the NIR spectrum. According to the highest values of correlation indices, it can be said that the parameters L* and a* of the colorimeter are inversely correlated with the cohesiveness parameter of the TPA and with the region from 1140 to 1400 nm. In this way, this study is promising for innovations in the assessment of freshness (preparation time) of foods and for the differentiation of proteins from different origins.