Functionality of free and microencapsulated propolis in salami

Author(s)

Sabrina Bernardi

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Piracicaba.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALA/BC)
• Defense date: 2010-10-13

Examining board members

Carmen Josefina Contreras Castillo; Marco Antonio Trindade; Eunice Akemi Yamada

• Advisor: Carmen Josefina Contreras Castillo

Abstract

Synthetic antioxidants are currently added to salami, but due to greater concern for consumer health and toxicity of these compounds, natural antioxidants have been more studied. Propolis is a compound that has several biological properties, among them antioxidant. However, due to its strong flavor and difficulty of solubilization, it is little used in food, and microencapsulation techniques have solved such problems. Therefore, the objective was to evaluate the functionality of free and microencapsulated propolis as natural antioxidant in Italian salami, also verifying the effects of this incorporation on the quality characteristics of this product. For this, a test (test 1) with propolis microencapsulated by spray drying with two different encapsulating agents, OSA starch (starch with octenyl succinic anhydride) and arabic gum were applied at different concentrations in salami and compared with a control sample, free of propolis and synthetic antioxidant. The samples of salami with added 0.15% microencapsulated propolis, both with OSA starch and arabic gum, were effective in controlling lipid oxidation during the drying process and the ripening of salami, differing greatly from the control. In this case, the acidity, pH and instrumental color were not affected negatively. After testing the stability and properties of the microcapsules, together with the results of test 1, a second test was performed (test 2), where the sausages were divided into groups spray drying and coacervation. The functionality of free propolis, microencapsulated by spray drying with two different encapsulating agents and by complex coacervation, was evaluated by comparing them with salami added by sodium erythorbate. In these trials were checked lipid oxidation, instrumental color, pH, water activity, acidity, besides conducting the microbiological and sensory analysis in salamis up to 90 days of storage. During processing, weight loss analysis of sausages was carried to ensure standardization of the process. From the results obtained in test 2, was not possible to differentiate the treatments for antioxidant effect of propolis on salami in that the increase in lipid oxidation during storage was low, a result confirmed by no sensory perception of rancidity. However, the sensory analysis it was found that the salami with microcapsules of propolis with OSA starch prepared by spray drying technique was so widely accepted as those with sodium erythorbate, and no reported negative results in the quality assessment by the proposed analysis. Whereas these microcapsules of propolis have shown antioxidant activity in salami in test 1, in future studies would be important to evaluate the antioxidant activity of propolis microencapsulated in salami under critical conditions of storage for accelerate the rate of lipid oxidation and improve the visualization of the antioxidant effects of propolis. (AU)