Application of ß-glucan in the curds technology: resource-saving and functionality

The possibility of using ß-glucan in production of the enriched curds has been studied in order to reduce the raw milk consumption. It is the food fiber which is able to strengthen the framework of the protein matrix at acid and acid-rennet coagulation, providing the transition of whey proteins into the finished product and preventing syneresis. The objects of the study were normalized milk mixtures with the fat mass fraction of 0,78 % (for the production of curds with a fat content of 5 %) containing 0,3, 0,5 and 0,8 % of ß-glucan, respectively. The control sample was an aqueous solution of ß-glucan with a mass fraction of 0,5 %. The process of food fibers swelling in these technological media has been investigated depending on the temperature and duration. The swelling ratio and the swelling speed constant have been chosen as the quantitative characteristics of the process. It has been discovered that the binding ratio of free moisture in the studied system is increased with increasing of ß-glucan content. The application of food fibers more than 0,5 % of the normalized mixture weight is impractical because it deteriorates the organoleptic properties of the finished product. ß-glucan swells restrictedly in the studied solutions. The binding ratio of free moisture in the normalized mixture is higher than in drinking water. The limiting swelling ratio of food fibers increases with the temperature growth of the normalized mixture due to the increase of the diffusion coefficient. The optimum temperature of the normalized mixture for the ß-glucan application is 50 °С. The developed resource-saving technological solution of the curds production allows to reduce the raw material consumption rate by 8 %, it also enriches the finished product with food fibers which are characterized by prebiotic properties.

enriched quark, food fiber ß-glucan, swelling, decreasing of raw material consumption