Abstract
Functional properties of food fibers are raising great interest within the scientific community, mainly due to its physiological and immunological stimuli at the intestinal lumen. The main purpose of our work was to verify the physical and chemical alterations in the pectin content from common food submitted to diverse techniques of hot preparations. Fresh beans (Phaseolus vulgaris, L.) of three varieties (carioca, xamego e itabagi), eggplants (Solanum melongena, L.), carrots (Daucus carota, L.) and apples (Mallus sylvestris, Mill) were acquired from a local supermarket and then stored in a cool, dry and clean place before applying the cooking methods. Varieties of beans were submitted to two soaking methods: 1 hour soaking in heated water or 12 hours soaking in cold/fresh water, with or without use of the soaking water in the following cook procedure; the remaining selected food were prepared with or without cooking water. Samples were submitted to regular heating or microwave heating before analysis of pectin content in prepared food and cooking broth. Samples submitted to pre-preparation under heat processing, followed by the use of soaking water in the preparation step is an efficient method to increase the levels of soluble pectin in all fractions of the food. Our work demonstrated that the type of preparation, time and temperature, cooking method and type of heating can be used as parameters to indicate the best culinary preparation with minor loses in soluble pectin content.
Keywords: Vegetables, dietary fiber, culinary, soluble pectin, soaking water, heat processing.
Graphical Abstract
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