In a modern and active society in which everything goes frenetically, functional foods appear in the food context as “the future”. In this recent study a fruit pulp enhanced with prebiotics, commercial inulin and chicory extract was developed. In the first phase of this study, began the process of establishing the aqueous extraction conditions of inulin from chicory root parings and the spray-drying of the obtained extracts. After checking that the extracts presented some unwanted sensorial characteristics, an alkalinization was conducted. In order to evaluate the minimum level perceived of chicory extract incorporation in fruit pulps, a detection level analysis was made: high and low extract concentrations were added to the fruit pulps and given to prove a sensory panel. A ranking test was also made to understand the favorite inulin and extract concentration addable to the pulps. There was also a final test recording of all associated highlights to a related food product. In conclusion, the extract added pulps show a different and strange flavour but the pulps with inulin got better results than the normal ones.

Mestrado em Engenharia Alimentar - Instituto Superior de Agronomia