Effect of borojo (Borojoa patinoi Cuatrecasas) three-phase composition and gum arabic on the glass transition temperature

BACKGROUND: The search for natural, novel, high-quality, stable food ingredients is an ongoing practice in the food industry. Pulp of borojo (Borojoa patinoi Cuatrecasas), which is a fruit of the Colombian Pacific region, can be separated into three phases: liquid (LP), medium (MP) and solid (SP) phases. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of the three-phase composition and gum arabic on their glass transitions temperatures (T_g). The best mixture, LP-MP, MP-SP and LP-SP and gum arabic (GA) was identified by response surface methodology. RESULTS: When adding GA to SP borojo phase in a 1:1 proportion, the resulting T_g of the mixture was 132.27 °C whereas T_g for GA and SP-phase were 154.89 °C and 79.86 °C respectively, which supported this combination as attractive from a processing perspective and supports an industrial advantage of using borojo as food ingredient. Phases were characterized by high-performance liquid chromatography, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, confocal laser scanning microscopy and mass spectrometry. Low molecular weight compounds such as fructose for MP lowered T_g whereas the presence of lignin increased T_g of the mixtures as with the SP. CONCLUSIONS: The addition of GA significantly increased T_g of borojo phases so leading to propose them as novel food processing materials.