Textural characterisation of gellan and agar based fabricated gels with carrot juice

Carrot juice (1:1, w/w) based gels, made from gellan and agar with sucrose (7.5 and 15 g/100 g), have been examined for the mechanical characteristics (fracture force and strain, and energy for compression) in addition to sensory attributes and syneresis. Incorporation of carrot juice in gellan gels markedly increases fracture force and energy for compression; syneresis increases to as high as 2 g/100 g. The fracture strain for gellan gels (30-40%) is higher than that of the agar sample (18-22%) meaning the more brittle nature of the latter samples. Gellan gels are much tougher and resist compression compared to agar samples at solid concentrations of 1 g/100 g. The sensory cohesiveness for carrot juice-gellan gels is higher than the corresponding gellan gels without carrot juice. In the case of agar gels, an increase in the sugar level increases sensory hardness, springiness, stickiness and cohesiveness while juiciness shows a different trend. The addition of sucrose in all these formulations improves cohesiveness. The application of principal component analysis to interrelate sensory and objective parameters indicates that the sensory juiciness stands separated from the remaining objective and sensory attributes.

► Healthy gels with good β-carotene content is possible by using carrot juice. ► Incorporation of carrot juice in gellan gels markedly increases fracture force. ► Gellan gels are tough and fractures late during compression. ► Agar forms brittle gels in presence of sugar and carrot juice.