Uso de la miel

Uso de miel como conservante y edulcorante de aliños para ensaladas

La utilización de miel como aditivo de aliños comerciales de ensaladas es una alternativa ventajosa frente a los aditivos químicos y a los edulcorantes que se emplean actualmente, según un estudio de la Universidad de Illinois.

La miel tiene un alto contenido de antioxidantes que protegen la calidad del aliño, manteniendoestables las grasas; tiene la propiedad de ser a la vez conservante y edulcorante, y además la característica de ser un producto natural, con propiedades saludables y con buena imagen para el consumidor.

En el estudio se han comparando los aliños con miel con un producto comercial normal. Para que el aliño con miel se mantenga como una emulsión y no se separen en fases agua, miel y aceite, seutilizó goma de xantano.

Almacenando los aliños obtenidos en diferentes condiciones se comprobó que la miel es altamente eficaz como conservante y edulcorante de los aliños de ensaladas.

Nicki Engeseth (09 de diciembre del 2008), “Honey Adds Health Benefits, Preserves and Sweetens Salad Dressings”, http://www.aces.uiuc.edu/news/stories/news4596.html

Original:
URBANA - Antioxidant-richhoney is a healthy alternative to chemical additives and refined sweeteners in commercial salad dressings, said a new University of Illinois study.
"To capitalize on the positive health effects of honey, we experimented with using honey in salad dressings," said Nicki Engeseth, a U of I associate professor of food chemistry. "We found that the antioxidants in honey protected the quality of the saladdressings for up to nine months while sweetening them naturally."
Engeseth's study substituted honey for EDTA, an additive used to keep the oils in salad dressings from oxidizing, and high-fructose corn syrup, used by many commercial salad-dressing producers to sweeten their salad dressing recipes.
"We chose clover and blueberry honeys for the study after an analysis of the sweetening potential,antioxidant activity, and phenolic profiles of 19 honeys with varying characteristics," said the scientist.
The dressings were also compared to a control dressing that contained ingredients found in current commercial salad dressings, she said.
Engeseth explained a problem the scientists encountered in using honey in a salad dressing system. "Salad dressings are emulsions--they contain oil andwater; and to keep these ingredients together in one phase, manufacturers rely on emulsifiers and thickening agents to avoid thinning of the dressing and separation of the oil and water phase," she said.
When the researchers found that enzymes in the honey broke the emulsion by attacking the starch that was used to thicken the dressing, they came up with a new formulation that used xanthan gum asa thickening agent, which they then used in all the dressings, she said.
The researchers then stored the dressings under various conditions, including 37 degrees Celsius (accelerated storage) for six weeks and 23 degrees Celsius and 4 degrees Celsius for one year, followed by an evaluation of their oxidative stability.
"After nine months of storage, both types of honey were as effective as EDTAin protecting against oxidation or spoilage. Blueberry honey performed slightly better than clover," she said.
Engeseth said that many consumers prefer products with natural ingredients and that salad dressings made with honey should appeal to these consumers.
"There's such a wide range of salad dressings on the market--some unique salad dressings as well as inexpensive products that performbeautifully. If manufacturers are interested in developing salad dressings that have a healthy twist, we've demonstrated that using honey as both an antioxidant and a sweetener is one way to do this," she said.
The article was published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Co-authors are Carolyn Rasmussen of Kraft Foods, Sophia Leung of Newlywed Foods, Lia M. Andrae-Nightingale, a...