Desenvolvimento de geleia diet de morango

Abstract

Faced with the reduction in cases of malnutrition, Brazil is facing a significant nutritional transition, culminating in a significant increase in obesity and overweight rates. This phenomenon stands out as an important development in the country's nutritional scenario, leading to an great growth of chronic non-communicable diseases. As a result, the demand for diet products has been growing and commonly destinated to people with some disorder in the metabolism of sugars (diabetics) or, more recently, consumers looking for low-calorie foods. Jelly is an intermediate moisture product, made from fruit pulp, with a gelatinous texture due to the balance between sugar, pectin, acid and other ingredients, allowing its preservation and greater added value to the final product for a prolonged period, however, for the preparation of diet jams, sugar must be replaced by sweeteners. Jellies that are low in soluble solids, such as diet jellies, use pectins that are low in methoxylation, as they can form hard gels through bivalent metal ions, such as calcium, without the need for the presence of large amounts of sugar. In the gel formation process, low-methoxylation (LM) pectin and apple, which naturally contains pectin, were used. The study included the elaboration of three formulations, with variations in the amounts of ingredients such as lemon juice, the sweeteners sorbitol and sucralose, and chemical, physical, microbiological and sensory analyses were performed. The results achieved in this research demonstrate the feasibility of developing strawberry diet jelly, using the sweeteners sorbitol and sucralose. This study contributed to obtaining a product with an aftertaste of sweetener classified as "weak" or "imperceptible", in addition to presenting satisfactory sensory attributes in terms of color, acidity and flavor. These conclusions point to a significant potential for improvement and innovation in the sensory profile of this type of product, highlighting the importance of this work in the context of research and development of food products.