RESUMO
With the increasing global population, it has become necessary to explore new alternative food sources to meet the increasing demand. However, these alternatives sources should not only be nutritive and suitable for large scale production at low cost, but also present good sensory characteristics. Therefore, this situation has influenced some industries to develop new food sources with competitive advantages, which require continuous innovation by generating and utilising new technologies and tools to create opportunities for new products, services, and industrial processes. Thus, this study aimed to optimise the production of gelatin-base gels from chicken feet by response surface methodology (RSM) and facilitate its sensorial classification by Kohonen's self-organising maps (SOM). Herein, a 22 experimental design was developed by varying sugar and powdered collagen contents to obtain grape flavoured gelatin from chicken feet. The colour, flavour, aroma, and texture attributes of gelatines were evaluated by consumers according to a hedonic scale of 1-9 points. Least squares method was used to develop models relating the gelatin attributes with the sugar content and collagen mass, and their sensorial qualities were analysed and classified using the SOM algorithm. Results showed that all gelatin samples had an average above six hedonic points, implying that they had good consumer acceptance and can be marketed. Furthermore, gelatin D, with 3.65-3.80% (w/w) powdered collagen and 26.5-28.6% (w/w) sugar, was determined as the best. Thus, the SOM algorithm proved to be a useful computational tool for comparing sensory samples and identifying the best gelatin product.
RESUMO
In this research, products with high quality were obtained from natural sources. The sensorial qualities, chemical characterization, and physical properties of gelatin extracted from chicken feet were compared with commercial gelatins. The extraction process was performed using acetic acid on a concentration ranging from 0.318% to 3.682%, processing time between 1.0 h and 8.4 h and extraction temperature between 43.3 °C and 76.8 °C. After the end of each assay, the yield was measured. Results showed that, under the best conditions, the collagen extraction yield was above 8%, and comprised 78.525 g/100 g of protein. Collagen analyzed by ICP-MS was composed of 99.44% of macro-minerals that are of great importance to human health. ATR-FTIR analysis showed that approximately 70.90% of the total protein from chicken feet is collagen, whereas, in commercial gelatin, only 30.31% is collagen. When comparing chicken gelatin with commercial gelatin, most sensory attributes were similar and chicken gelatin gained acceptance by more than 80% of the consumers. Additionally, the collagen films obtained from chicken feet and swine showed water absorption, odors, and texture characteristics similar to commercial material, such as latex and celofane. Consequently, due to its similarity to human skin, it is possible to apply it as a biocurative.