Manufacture of a Low Oxalate Mitsumame-Type Dessert Using Rhubarb Juice and Calcium Salts

Sophie Faudon,Geoffrey Savage

doi:10.4236/fns.2014.517174

Abstract

Rhubarb (Rheum rhabarbarum) juice was used to make a Japanese soft mitsumame-type dessert sweet. The dessert was prepared from extracted rhubarb juice, which was cooked with sugar, agar and guar gum, then allowed to set in sweet moulds. The total, soluble and insoluble oxalates were determined in the ingredients and the final products using HPLC chromatography. To reduce the soluble oxalate content of the dessert while retaining the colour and taste of the final product, increments of CaCl2 and CaCO3 were added to the test dessert mixes. The addition of CaCl2 reduced the pH from 3.55 ± 0.03 to pH 3.09 ± 0.02 while addition of CaCO3 increased the pH from 3.55 ± 0.03 to 4.96 ± 0.01. In both cases, the incremental addition of calcium reduced the soluble oxalate content of the sweets by converting it to insoluble oxalate.

Highlights

The consumption of foods made from seaweed dates back to Japanese pre-history [1]
It was interesting to note that the juice fraction contained appreciable insoluble oxalate content; this is presumably bound in the fine particulate matter suspended in the juice
Rhubarb juice made up 90.5% and 94.7% of the total and soluble oxalate content of the dessert, agar supplied 9.1% and 5.2% of the total and soluble oxalate content while guar gum only supplied 0.4% and 0.1% of the same constituents

Summary

Introduction

The consumption of foods made from seaweed dates back to Japanese pre-history [1]. An unbranched polysaccharide derived commercially from the red alga (Gelidium amanssi), has been used in Japanese cuisine for more than 100 years. Mitsumame is a Japanese dessert made from agar and it is usually eaten as small white cubes with pieces of fruit and boiled azuki beans [2]. Different flavours and colours have been added. Japanese people are interested in the development of their traditional foods and they like foods that have delicate flavours and pastel colours. How to cite this paper: Faudon, S. and Savage, G. (2014) Manufacture of a Low Oxalate Mitsumame-Type Dessert Using Rhubarb Juice and Calcium Salts.

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