Texture Analysis: A tool to help the development of new food products from byproducts

In a linear economy we ‘take’ raw materials from the environment, ‘make’ something, ‘use’ or don’t use it, and finally ‘dispose’ of it. 

 

For example: in a supermarket, food that is still good but needs to be removed from shelves – often due to inventory or overstock reasons – typically heads to the landfill. We need to adopt a new approach to avoid this wasteful situation that challenges economies across the globe. A circular approach – reuse, recycle, remake, redistribute – aims to ensure zero food waste in the food chain. 

 

Aside from the waste associated with retailers and consumers there is a growing interest in the potential use of food manufacture by-products and how they can be reintroduced into the manufacture of new products. This would not only reduces waste but also provides a nutrient recycling opportunity and establishes a more efficient and sustainable food supply chain.

We have all heard the saying ‘One man’s waste is another man’s treasure’. With today’s environmental issues how incredible would it be if we could convert the waste material produced by the manufacture of one material in order to use it as an ingredient in another. What is useless to one company/product is potentially valuable to another.

If food chains could realise the cost-saving incentive to map food waste scenarios and create by-product synergies with appropriate technologies, these circular strategies would redirect food waste issues into a valuable resource. Food waste could be redirected to generate renewable energy, enhance the soil as a fertilizer and feed animals, or better still create new food products.

Of course, the challenge is to replace ordinary ingredients with repurposed materials without the consumer noticing textural differences. This is where texture analysis is the perfect tool to assess the effect of any textural change in the reformulation.  There are leaders in the field who are actively finding ways to repurpose food waste materials – here are just a selection who are using texture analysis as a tool to measure the results of their product developments:

Reuse of spent espresso coffee to create novel enriched muffins

Scientists at University of Foggia, Italy, have realised that to discover and to use a sustainable source of nutrients and functional compounds is an urgent problem to tackle for modern societies.  They have utilised the spent espresso coffee grounds to replace mass fractions of 15% and 30% of wheat flour in a muffin formulation and, among other tests, they have analysed the changes in texture using their TA.XT2 Texture Analyser and sensory properties.

The volume of the enriched muffins didn't change significantly and the gain of dietary fibre covered the 12–20% of the recommended daily intake and allowed meeting the EU claim of ‘high in fibre’. Sensory properties were scored greater than 3.5 in a scale of 5, proving that the grains could be used as ingredients for a more sustainable food sector. Read more

Reuse of blackcurrant pomace to elaborate cakes

Similarly, researchers at Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain have taken blackcurrant pomace (which is a by-product with bioactive compounds and dietary fibre) and used it to elaborate bakery products such as cakes. As the pomace has a high fibre content it has the potential to result in techno-functional problems affecting texture and sensory properties. 

Different leavening agents (citric acid, sodium acid pyrophosphate, and glucono-δ-lactone) were used in combination with sodium bicarbonate and the texture, colour and sensory profile were studied in a micro-baking simulation to see the expansion of the bubbles in the batter.

Texture profile analysis results using their TA.XTplus Texture Analyser revealed that pyrophosphate and glucono-δ-lactone incorporated more air, which led to bigger gas cells and a softer texture although all formulations were acceptable according to a sensory panel which highlights the potential to include byproduct that add a benefit at little or no cost with small formulation adjustments to accommodate the inclusion without negative impact on the consumer. Read more

Reuse of frozen vegetable production waste into vegetable bars

At Warsaw University of Life Sciences, scientists' was to take the residual waste arising from the production of frozen vegetables to form a vegetable bar. They have been researching the production of innovative freeze-dried vegetable snacks with hydrocolloids, in terms of the technological process and carbon footprint calculation. The study has involved six recipes of vegetable gels to combine them into three-layer snacks.

Hydrocolloid bars were freeze-dried to create a porous structure. Two hydrocolloid systems were analysed: sodium alginate with calcium lactate and the mixture of locust bean gum with xanthan gum. They used their TA.HDplus Texture Analyser to perform compression tests on snack samples.

The carbon footprint for the production of each freeze-dried vegetables bar was calculated. The type of hydrocolloid has been mainly shown to have a significant impact on the on the physical properties and footprint of investigated snacks. Find out more

Reuse orange juice by-products for cookie production

Researchers from the University of São Paulo have been investigating orange juice by-products in the food industry as a functional ingredient, with application in a circular economy. The objective of this study was to produce a flour from orange juice by-product, characterise it, and then apply this flour to produce cookies. They used their TA.XT2 Texture Analyser to measure cookie hardness in compression. 

The hardness of cookies was found to increase significantly with higher concentrations of orange by-product flour. Orange by-product flour showed interesting characteristics, suggesting its possible use in the development of fibre-enriched foods such as cookies. Its production represents a key strategy for the orange juice processing industries towards the application of a circular economy in the food system. Find out more

By 2030 we will need two planets to meet the world’s demands and by 2050, three planets! It’s time to act. Finding solutions to provide nutritious food to nearly 10 billion people by 2050 without destroying our planet is one of the greatest challenges of our generation – and what better way than to intelligently repurpose our waste materials.

There is a Texture Analysis test for virtually any physical property. Contact Stable Micro Systems today to learn more about our full range of solutions.

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For more information on how to measure texture, please visit the Texture Analysis Properties section on our website.

The TA.XTplus texture analyser is part of a family of texture analysis instruments and equipment from Stable Micro Systems. An extensive portfolio of specialist attachments is available to measure and analyse the textural properties of a huge range of food products. Our technical experts can also custom design instrument fixtures according to individual specifications.

No-one understands texture analysis like we do!

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