CHARACTERIZATION OF DIETARY FIBERS AND STUDY OF THEIR BEHAVIOR IN AQUEOUS SOLUTIONS

Abstract

The increased demand for frozen meat products makes the problem of preserving their structural properties during low-temperature processing and storage urgent, and modern trends in human nutrition require the production of food products with a minimum energy value, with a minimum amount of fat and the presence of substances that improve digestion. One of the ways to solve these problems is the possibility of using dietary fibers during the production of frozen meat products. The wide variety of dietary fibers of domestic and foreign production on the market of Ukraine requires systematic research for individual types of fibers. Thus, the purpose of the work was to provide a characterization of dietary fibers and study their behavior in aqueous solutions. The paper studied and characterized four types of food fibers (orange fiber, carrot, potato and wheat fiber) presented on the market of food additives in Ukraine. Experimental studies made it possible to determine the behavior of dietary fibers in water and aqueous solutions of electrolytes by studying the processes of their swelling. It was established that the process of swelling of all dietary fibers in the first (10...15)·60 seconds is intensive. Regardless of the composition of the solvent (water, NaСl solution), the maximum degree of swelling of food fibers is reached within (20...35)·60 seconds, and orange fibers and carrot fiber had the highest swelling speed at the initial stages and the degree of swelling. It was also established that the time to reach full swelling of carrot fiber was the longest compared to all dietary fibers. The obtained results of the study made it possible to note the orange dietary fiber "Citri-Fi" for targeted use during the production of frozen meat products.