Effect of Gum Tragacanth as a Fat Replacer on Rheological, Sensory and Texture Properties of Low Fat Mayonnaise

Abstract

Mayonnaise is a popular product which is consumed in large amounts. However, many consumers consider it as a unhealthy product as it contains high amounts of oil. Therefore, production of low fat mayonnaise with a quality close to that of traditional one might respond to consumer demand. In the present study, gum tragacanth was used as a fat replacer for the preparation of low fat (LF) mayonnaise. Mayonnaise samples were analyzed in terms of their rheological, textural and sensory properties. Fat was partially substituted by gum tragacanth at levels of 20%, 30%, 40% and 50%, and the samples were referred as TRF20%, TRF30%, TRF40% and TRF50%, respectively. The full fat (FF) mayonnaise (75% oil) without gum tragacanth was used as a control. Results indicated that all LF mayonnaise samples had significantly lower energy content than control, but they had higher moisture content than their FF counterpart. In terms of textural properties, the highest value for firmness and adhesiveness was observed in TRF20%. There were no significant differences between the FF and TRF50%. In terms of rheological properties, all of mayonnaise samples exhibited thixotropic shear thinning behavior. In sensory evaluation, in terms of total acceptability, the highest score belonged to TRF20%, but there was not observed significantly difference in other samples. This study showed that gum tragacanth has high potential to use as a fat replacer in mayonnaise.