Realçadores de sabor: qual o efeito da matriz alimentícia em sua capacidade de intensificar o gosto salgado?

Abstract

The increase in the salty perception taste through the use of flavor enhancers is a promising strategy to reduce the amount of sodium chloride (NaCl) in foods. Thus, the aim of this study was (i) to evaluate the ability of monoammonium glutamate (MAG), monosodium glutamate (MSG), disodium guanylate (GMP) and disodium inosinate (IMP) flavor enhancers to intensify the salty taste of food matrices (shoestring potatoes, requeijão cheese and beef burgers) with NaCl reduction; (ii) to evaluate the potential use of MAG using temporal profile and affective test in potato, requeijão cheese and beef burgers with reduced NaCl content. The experiments were conducted using a central composite rotational design (CCRD) with two variables: flavor enhancer content and NaCl content of the food matrix. To assess the temporal profile of food matrices added with MAG, time intensity analysis (TI), temporal dominance of sensations analysis (TDS) and acceptance test were used as an affective test. The effect of IMP was not significant in the intensity of salty taste in any of the analyzed matrices. GMP presented lower performance compared to MAG and MSG to intensify the salty taste of samples, regardless of the reduction in the NaCl content. Compared to MSG and GMP, MAG showed greater efficiency in intensifying the salty taste in requeijão cheese and beef burgers with the reductions of 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% of the NaCl content. MSG presented greater efficiency compared to MAG and GMP when applied to shoestring potatoes for all NaCl reductions tested (25%, 50% and 75%). It was observed by the TI analysis for salty taste that all treatments had mean salty taste intensity equal to or greater than the control. As for the intensity of the umami taste, it can be observed that the food matrix influenced the averages obtained, in which the requeijão cheese had higher notes of intensity of umami taste than the other matrices. In the TDS analysis, it was observed that the samples of shoestring potatoes and requeijão cheese had a similar temporal profile. In the acceptance analysis, only the requeijão cheese treatments presented means significantly lower than the control. Thus, the ability of flavor enhancers (MAG, MSG and GMP) to intensify the salty taste was dependent of the effect of the flavor enhancer, the complexity of the food matrix and the reduction of NaCl in the foods. It can also be seen that MAG presented potential use for shoestring potatoes and beef burgers. The application of MAG showed different effects on the intensification of the salty taste, and it is possible to state that its use is able to reduce the NaCl content by 50% in shoestring potatoes and 65% in beef burgers. However, MAG did not show potential use to reduce the NaCl content in requeijão cheese. The addition of 2% MAG in requeijão cheese reduced its sensory acceptance.