ELABORAÇÃO DE MOLHO TIPO RANCH COM MAIONESE E CREME DE LEITE SUBSTITUÍDOS POR POLPA DE COCO VERDE

Abstract

Brazil is one of the largest coconut producers and currently holds the fourth position in the world ranking. The large amount of generated residue has become one of the big problems of this extensive production and consumption of coconut derived products. One of the most commonly discarded parts is the pulp, which is used only when the coconut is ripe. Though it is an edible product, few research has been made on finding ways to use the coconut pulp, although it presents an elevated nutritional and economic potential. The objective of this study was to elaborate a ranch type sauce with green coconut pulp replacing mayonnaise and heavy cream, evaluate the sensory influence of this substitution and how the sensory characteristics of the product were altered. Four different formulations were made with the same amount of condiments and varied amounts of mayonnaise, heavy cream and green coconut pulp at 0%, 50%, 70% and 100%. For the sensory analysis, the participants were asked to judge and assign grades to the product, using a hedonic scale of nine points (9 = extremely liked; 1 = extremely disliked), the judged attributes were: appearance, odor, consistency, flavor, total acceptance. The research also included a buying intention test made using a hedonic scale of five points (5 = would certainly buy; 1 = certainly wouldn't buy), in which the judges expressed their willingness to buy the product. Both the sensory acceptance test and buying intention test results were submitted to analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey’s range test. Thus, in face of the results obtained in this study, comparing all the formulations using Tukey’s test, the samples with 50% and 70% coconut achieved satisfactory results, without significant difference from the coconut-absent sample. As for the 100% coconut based formulation, this sample was the most problematic one, as its results differed from both the standard and from the other coconut based samples, receiving the lowest grades in virtually every attribute.