Abstract
Gluconic acid, the major organic acid in honey, is a partial hydrolysate of glucono-δ-lactone, typically used as a coagulant in preparing tofu. The present study aimed to examine the coagulation potential of five different types of honey at different concentrations, upon addition to soymilk. In some samples, aggregates formed in the upper layer at a higher honey concentration, while in others, aggregates precipitated at an intermediate honey concentration. Both phenomena were reproduced by adding different mixtures of glucono-δ-lactone and glucose, indicating that gluconic acid concentration and total sugar content of honey can trigger soymilk coagulation. Interestingly, honeys with a high concentration of gluconic acid showed a low total sugar content. Furthermore, in a trial product, the mixture of blended honey with soymilk was determined to be pasty. Our results indicate that honey can coagulate soymilk, which may provide a new and convenient method to prepare soymilk-based industrial products.
Highlights
Honey has been used as a food and medicinal item since ancient times
Since the actual composition of honey differs between honey samples from different sources (Alvarez-Suartez et al, 2014), five different honey samples were selected to analyse the respective abilities further to induce soymilk proteins aggregation
Our study shows that the addition of honey to soymilk promotes protein aggregation, which can be attributed to the Gluconic acid (GA) content, as well as honey's total glucose content
Summary
Honey has been used as a food and medicinal item since ancient times. To data, honey is still used in various food products because of its characteristic flavour, taste, and texture. Primarily comprising fructose and glucose and respective secondary oligosaccharides (Tewari and Irudayaraj, 2004), and small quantities of organic acids, such as flavonoids, polyphenols, carotenoid-like substrates, Maillard reaction products, vitamins, minerals, and water (Mato et al, 2006; Machado De-Melo et al, 2018). Gluconic acid (GA) is the major organic acid (>79%) in honey (Mato et al, 2006) and is mainly produced by the enzymatic oxidation of glucose in honeybee (Carina et al, 2014). The enzymatic oxidation is inhibited by a low quantity of available water and the acidic pH in honey, the activity is resumed when the honey is diluted in water (Carina et al, 2014)
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