Technological strategies to produce functional meat burgers

- Beef burgers enriched with fructo-oligosaccharides, inulin and oat bran were realized.
- The optimized formulations minimized the loss of prebiotics during cooking.
- Prebiotics addition also improved the technological and sensory characteristics.

This research was focused on the development of different strategies in order to produce beef burgers enriched with fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS), inulin and an oat bran loaded protein foam. The various formulations of functional beef burgers were optimized from a sensory point of view by means of a panel of ten trained members. Once the formulation has been optimized, the influence of the prebiotic ingredients on chemical, physical, nutritional and technological characteristics of meat burgers was assessed. From the results, it was found that combinations of both FOS and inulin, respectively combined with oat bran loaded foam are an interesting way to minimize the loss of prebiotic compounds during cooking. The concentration of fibers was found to be much higher than the minimal imposed level (3 g of dietary fiber for 100 g of food product) for prebiotic food, in all meat samples. Results also suggest that prebiotic addition to meat also improved the technological and sensory characteristics of investigated burgers.