Deliberate processing of carrot purées entails tailored serum pectin structures

Intense high pressure homogenization enhances the solubilization of pectin in the serum fraction of plant-based dispersions (e.g. purées, soups, juices and sauces). This offers the potential of tailoring the concentration and structure of serum pectin that contributes to the functionality (e.g. consistency, homogeneity) of plant-based dispersions. It was shown that the order of thermal and mechanical unit operations results in different serum pectin molar mass distributions as well as carrot purée consistencies. This further enables the production of more natural plant-based food products with targeted functionalities.