The effects of lactic acid bacteria (Lactobacillus plantarum and Lactobacillus bulgaricus) inoculation
on the sensory attributes and consumers acceptance of fermented curry paste compared with uncultured sample were assessed. pH, titratable acidity (TA) and color changes, during four-month storage were monitored. Hedonic test was utilized to evaluate consumer perception and acceptability of fermented and ordinary curry pastes. Rapid pH drop was observed in inoculated sample with Lb. plantarum presenting better performance than the Lb. bulgaricus. Titratable acidity increased significantly (p0.05) in most of the attributes of
original recipe and fermented curry paste except for color and sweetness. In summary, this study showed fermented curry paste with Lb. plantarum and Lb. bulgaricus exhibited new sensory attributes encouraging acceptability by consumers.
The effects of soaking conditions on the quality characteristics of seaweed paste of Kappaphycus alverazii species were studied. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) with a 2-factor, 5-level central composite design (CCD) was conducted to determine the optimum soaking conditions. The interactive effect of dry seaweed: soaking water ratio (X1 = 1: 15-50) and soaking duration (X2 = 30-120 min) on the gel strength (g), whiteness, expansion (%), moisture content (%) and protein content (g/100 g) of the paste were determined. Results showed that the experimental data could be adequately fitted into a second-order polynomial model with multiple regression coefficients (R2) of 0.8141, 0.9245, 0.9118, 0.9113 and 0.9271 for the gel strength, whiteness, expansion, moisture content and protein content, respectively. The gel strength, whiteness, expansion, moisture content and protein content of seaweed paste were dependent on the ratio of dry seaweed to soaking water and also soaking duration. The proposed optimum soaking conditions for the production of seaweed paste is at a ratio of 1:15 (dry seaweed : soaking water) and soaking duration of 117.06 min. Based on the result obtained, the RSM demonstrated a suitable approach for the processing optimization of Kappaphycus alverazii paste.
This study was conducted to improve the formulation of chili shrimp paste (CSP) based on sensory evaluation in terms of acidity, source of acid and coarseness of chili paste and to improve the production process of CSP. The effectiveness of dimethyl dicarbonate (DMDC) as a microbial reduction agent was also evaluated. To produce CSP with different coarseness, a milling machine was used. Two types of preference test were conducted, i.e. ranking and hedonic. The preferred pH level was 4.0, the best acid source was kalamansi juice, and the most preferred coarseness for chili paste was when milling plates with a gap of 120 µm was used. DMDC has no effect on microbial reduction due to the presence of fat globules in CSP which hindered the inactivation action. Milling can substitute pounding as it is much faster and can produce a uniform CSP with higher volume.
Roasting of whole-kernels is an important step in the production of pistachio paste. The effect of hot air roasting temperatures (90-190°C) and times (5-65 min) on the hardness, moisture content and colour attributes (‘L’, ‘a’ and ‘b’ values and yellowness index) of both whole-kernel and ground-state were investigated using response surface methodology (RSM). Increases in roasting temperature and time caused a decrease in all the responses except for ‘a’ value of ground-state. The interaction and quadratic models sufficiently described the changes in the hardness and colour values, respectively. The result of RSM analysis showed that hardness and colour attributes (‘L’ and ‘b’ values, yellowness index) of kernels and ‘a’ value of ground-state could be used to monitor the roasting quality of whole-kernels. This study showed that the recommended range of roasting temperature and time of whole-kernel for the production of pistachio paste were 130-140°C and 30-40 min, respectively.