CHANGES IN TEXTURE PROFILE OF AMARANTH SEEDS SUBJECTED TO SOUS VIDE TREATMENT

Abstract

Amaranth seeds represent an important category of pseudocereals that showed growth over time both in terms of cultivated areas and food products containing amaranth seeds. In different geographical areas, amaranth occupies an important place in terms of pseudocereal consumption, especially in Latin America and China where amaranth cultivation has been documented for over 3000 years. Due to the chemical composition in general but also due to the physical structure in particular, the cooking possibilities of amaranth seeds are limited to a certain extent. The purpose of this study was to examine and determine the impact of a new heat treatment method that can be applied to amaranth seeds in order to design and obtain new functional foods from a physical and sensory point of view. Sous-vide technology is mostly used for cooking meat or vegetables. Cereals and pseudocereals have so far not been considered suitable for sous-vide cooking due to their physical structure and low moisture content. In this study, the method adapted to these factors is described, which allows the heat treatment specific to sous-vide technology to be carried out for amaranth seeds as well. The sous vide treatment was applied at different temperature (75 °C, 80 °C and 85°C), times (60, 120, 180 and 240 min) and solid-liquid ratios (1/4, 1/5 and 1/6). The exposure time had a major influence on the textural characteristics up to the value of 180 minutes, after which the relevance of this parameter decreased.