Aplicação de ovo de codorna em pó na elaboração de macarrão: impacto nas propriedades físicas e sensoriais

Abstract

The pasta gained popularity due to its ease of transport, handling, cooking, storage, and good palatability. The inclusion of eggs in pasta formulation increases nutritional value and improves color, texture, and firmness. Eggs from different species, such as quail, can be considered an ingredient in pasta production. Dehydrated eggs offer advantages such as longer storage time and storage at room temperature, and their use requires studies to evaluate their impact on pasta characteristics. This study aimed to characterize fresh and dehydrated quail eggs by two methods (70 °C oven and freeze-drying) and evaluate their influence on the preparation of dry pasta, emphasizing physicochemical properties. Additionally, the study sought to assess whether different quail egg drying methods influenced the sensory attributes of the final product. pH, instrumental color, moisture, and water activity analyses were conducted for quail eggs. At the same time, pasta formulations underwent analyses of moisture, water activity, instrumental color, cooking time, water absorption index, cooking loss, acidity, texture profile, as well as sensory analyses through acceptance and control difference tests. In the egg characterization, liquid, oven-dried, and freeze-dried quail eggs showed significant differences in pH parameters (8.06 to 9.10) and color, with a tendency for pH to increase with dehydration. The drying method influenced the color of the obtained powders, with oven drying resulting in a darker powder. There were differences in moisture results (2.21 and 3.06%) and water activity (0.18 and 0.26) for freeze-dried and oven-dried eggs, both below the limit established by legislation for moisture. Regarding pasta formulations, most analyses, such as moisture (8.77 to 8.88%), water activity (0.41 to 0.43), water absorption index (282.39 to 302.06%), cooking loss (4.84 to 5.35%), and most parameters of the texture profile and instrumental color, indicated that quail egg drying processes did not influence the characteristics of the pastes. The formulations differed in acidity index (2.59 to 4.09%), possibly due to pH variation resulting from drying processes, and in cooking time, resulting from differences in structure and interaction of the obtained powders with water. The control difference test showed that there is a difference between the formulations. However, in the acceptance test, all samples had good acceptance regarding the evaluated attributes, except for the aroma in the oven-dried egg pasta, which obtained an acceptance index below 70%. Thus, the drying methods did not compromise most of the analyzed parameters, suggesting the feasibility of these processes producing pasta with dehydrated quail eggs. Furthermore, the results indicate that freeze-dried quail egg showed slightly superior performance in pasta production for cooking time tests, acidity index, and in the acceptance test for appearance, aroma, flavor, and overall, compared to oven-dried eggs.