Viabilidade Tecnológica para o enriquecimento de polpas de frutas tropicais com fontes de ferro e de ômega-3.

Abstract

Food consumption in Brazil consists mainly of high-energy and nutrient-poor foods, which can lead to a chronic deficit of nutrients and a higher risk of diseases such as obesity and many other noncommunicable chronic conditions. Ideally, the Brazilians should promote a change in their eating habits and their lifestyle, but children and pregnant women with nutritional deficiencies, in particular, cannot wait decades for these corrections. An effective strategy to fight these deficiencies is the fortification of habitually consumed food with micronutrients; this action provides a direct addition of multiple powdered nutrients to ready-for-consumption foods, which has shown high efficiency and effectiveness, recently even recognized by the World Health Organization. Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate the technological feasibility of enriching tropical fruit pulps with sources of iron and omega-3 (DHA + EPA) in sufficient dosages to achieve at least 50% of the RDA of these nutrients for pregnant women, when a fruit juice cup (300 mL) is consumed. The acerola and mangaba juices masked almost completely the taste of iron. On the other hand, the soursop juice was more susceptible to reactions with iron, resulting in juice flavor and color variations with the increasing concentration of this micronutrient. For the soursop sample it was tested the enrichment with iron microparticles covered with fat, however the results showed no improvement over the addition of unencapsulated salts. For the samples enriched with omega-3-rich fish oil, sensory evaluations showed effectiveness of the mangaba and umbu-caja pulps in masking the fish flavor. The calorimetric analysis showed that the fruit pulps could slow the oxidation process of fish oil in the following order: Mangaba > Umbu-caja > Acerola. This work demonstrated that it is technologically feasible enrich acerola and mangaba pulps with high bioavailability iron salts such as ferrous sulfate and ferrous fumarate, in dosages that provide 100% of the daily needs of pregnant women recommended by the Ministry of Health, when a fruit juice cup is consumed. It is also technologically feasible enrich the mangaba and umbu-caja pulps with fish oil microencapsulated by spray-dryer at a dosage of 30 mg DHA + EPA / 100 g juice, which provides 50% of the dosage recommended by the World Health Organization for day for pregnant women.