CHANGES IN QUALITY OF AMARANTH GRAIN IN THE PROCESS OF POST-HARVESTING PROCESSING AND STORAGE

One of the ways to solve the problem of deteriorating human health can be the widespread use of plant products, among which the most valuable are vegetable oils, including amaranth oil. It contains a complex of vitamins, micro- and macroelements, unsaturated fatty acids and essential amino acids and a unique natural biologically active substance, squalene, which performs a number of key functions in the human body. However, post-harvest processing of amaranth grain, in particular drying, and its subsequent storage in different conditions can significantly impair its valuable natural properties. The research presents the results of studies of changes in the chemical composition and microbiological characteristics of amaranth grain in the process of drying and storage in different conditions, which will ensure its guaranteed quality during storage. The effect of drying amaranth to humidity of 9% at temperatures of 50 °С and 60 °С , has been studied on the total amount of saponified substances, content of squalene, linolenic, linoleic, oleic, palmitic and stearic acids, which were determined by gas – liquid chromatography. It has been found that after drying amaranth grain there is a decrease in the content of saponified substances by 10% and squalene by 14% compared to freshly harvested grain, and the content of free fatty acids in the unsaponified fraction remains unchanged. When storing amaranth during the year at temperatures of +5 °С, +15 °С and +25 °С and relative humidity of 55% and 75%. Changes in the content of such basic indicators of grain quality as protein, starch, fiber, fat, ash, as well as acid number and acidity of fat were determined. At the same time, the protein content decreased by 13.5%, starch by 8.7%, fat by 29.0%. The content of fiber and ash has not changed. Under the same storage conditions, there was also a significant deterioration in the quality of fat -acid number increased by 6.9 times, the acidity of the alcohol extract by 2.9 times. When storing amaranth at a temperature of +5 °С and a relative humidity of 55%, the decrease in the content of the main components was significantly smaller and amounted to 8.1% for protein, 2.9% for starch and 4.2% for fat. Under the same conditions, the activity of microorganisms is significantly reduced, which allowed to recommend these storage conditions for industrial use.

BAKING PROPERTIES OF DIFFERENT AMARANTH FLOURS AS WHEAT BREAD INGREDIENTS

The technological properties of full-fat amaranth flour depend on the varietal characteristics of the Ukrainian amaranth grain and differ significantly from amaranth flour from flakes and amaranth flour from groats. In comparison with patent wheat flour, amaranth flour has a lower moisture content, higher water absorption capacity and autolytic activity. The variety of Amaranthus hypochondriacus significantly effects on the whiteness of full-fat flours, the lightest of which is obtained from the grain cultivar Kharkivsky-1. A higher fat, protein, and fibre content makes amaranth flours more acidic. The water absorption capacity of the flours shows positive correlation with their autolytic activity (+0.885). The acidity negatively correlates with the moisture (-0.939) and whiteness (-0.814) of the flours. Using amaranth flour of the different types to replace 5, 15, and 25% of patent wheat flour when making bread increases its specific volume and crumb porosity and decreases its shape stability. The positive correlation of the overall quality of the bread samples under study with their specific volume (+0.540) and the negative correlation with the acidity (- 0.685) are statistically significant. The shape stability negatively correlates with the porosity (-0.598), and the latter positively correlates with the specific volume (+0.533). The use of full-fat amaranth flour increases the specific volume and porosity of bread by 1.1–1.3 and 1.1 times respectively. The use of defatted flour from flakes leads to a 1.3–1.9 -fold increase in the specific volume and to a 1.1–1.2 -old increase in the porosity. Incorporation of amaranth flour from groats allows increasing the specific volume and porosity of bread by 1.3–1.5 and 1.1–1.2 times respectively. The bread samples with 25% of all amaranth flours considered and with 15% of full-fat flour of the Liera variety have the lowest consumer characteristics. It has been proved that using 5–15% of full-fat flour from the amaranth grain of variety Kharkivsky-1 and defatted flour from flakes and groats (by-products of processing amaranth grain into oil) improves the quality and nutritional value of bread.

PECULIARITIES OF THE PROCESS OF PURIFICATION OF AMRANT GRAIN FROM IMPURITIES

Proper and balanced nutrition is the key to a person's physical health, especially in the face of deteriorating environmental conditions and the effects of daily stress caused by the accelerated pace of life in recent years. In this regard, the attention of many researchers and entrepreneurs is focused on the development and implementation in mass production of foods that would fully meet human needs for protein, vitamins, micro-and micronutrients, etc. Recently, ingredients made from non-traditional vegetable raw materials have been used for the production of functional foods. Amaranth belongs to such vegetable raw materials. Amaranth culture has been known since ancient times, used by the ancient Aztecs. The main feature of this culture is the unique chemical composition, which causes an extremely wide range of its use, which is not limited to the food industry. In terms of amino acid composition, amaranth grain protein is close to the composition of an ideal protein. The presence of squalene in amaranth oil makes it possible to use it for the manufacture of medicines and cosmetics. However, despite the prospects for the use of amaranth, producers face difficulties with the characteristics of the grain of this crop. Small grain sizes require careful selection of mode parameters of technological equipment for post-harvest processing. To substantiate the cleaning regimes, a study of the particle size distribution, physical-mechanical and aerodynamic properties of amaranth grain mass has been carried out. Based on the research, it is established that despite the fact that some amaranth species like shchyrytsya” have almost the same grain size and shape, the transgression coefficients calculated according to certain divisibility values can predict the possibility of separating a mixture of freshly harvested amaranth grain and its impurities, in particular from difficult to separate . It is proposed to use a set of sieves with round holes of the following sizes (mm) to separate this mixture: B1 – 1.0…1.1; B2 – 1.0…1.1; B2 – 1.0…1.2; G1 – 0.7…0.9; and elongated holes with dimensions (mm): B1 – (0.8…1.0)×20, B2 – (0.5…0.7)×20, B1 – (0.4…0.6)×20 .

Amaranth as a bread enriching ingredient

Amaranth is a promising raw material for enriching foods with protein, minerals, vitamins, dietary fibre, squalene, and other nutrients. However, its varieties differ significantly in composition and properties. The research included two stages. At first, we studied the composition of eight amaranth varieties grown in a collection nursery of Voronezh State Agrarian University. Their composition was a factor that determined their functional use as an enriching ingredient. We found that amaranth grain of the Universal variety could be best used to increase the biological value of foods, whereas the Universal and Valentina varieties could be recommended as multifunctional ingredients. The addition of enriching ingredients into foods, including breads, often leads to changes in their traditional consumer properties. Therefore, our next step was to study changes in the composition of Universal amaranth during extrusion using IR spectroscopy. Also, we assessed the effect of amaranth extrudate on the baking properties of model wheat flour and extrudate mixtures as the main factor of the product’s consumer properties. The results showed a redistribution of moisture between flour gluten proteins and extrudate dietary fibre. We also established amounts of amaranth extrudate needed to ensure the preservation of crumb appearance and structure close to the traditional ones.

Organoleptic and Nutritional Evaluation of Value Added Noodles from Amaranth Seed Flour

Pseudocereals are as good as the true cereals in many aspects of nutritional value. Either substituting or supplementing the staple cereals with pseudocereals and thereby improving the nutritive value of foods are under experimentation. Amaranth, a pseudocereal possess the usual characteristics of cereals such as bland taste, ease of cooking and also contain a substantial quality of cooking and fat as compared to most cereals. Amaranth contain good amount of fiber, energy and mineral than the conventional grains. Nevertheless, amaranth grain is still considered as a underutilized food crop and its consumed very few places. The usage of amaranth green, though very common in many parts of India. Development of nutritionally superior inexpensive food and acceptable to intended consumer is the biggest challenge of the present time. The present investigation was designed to develop high protein product by incorporation of amaranth flour. Amaranth flour was incorporate in the ratio of 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 and 70 per cent in the wheat flour. The higher score of overall acceptability was 7.70± 0.10 for 50 per cent substitution of amaranth flour after control and the minimum as 6.67± 0.25 for the 70 per cent amaranth flour noodles. Considering the results obtained and characteristics of flour used, the amaranth flour addition up to 30 per cent is evident to improve some nutritional properties and 50 per cent for sensory characteristic. Results also showed significant increase (P<0.05) in the protein (13.22 g) when compared with control (12.07 g). In this research it was analyzed that the different amount of amaranth flour plays an important role in noodles making by enhancing nutritional parameters and overall product quality. Resultant noodles can be used as a nutritious food with higher content of protein and other nutritious elements in an increased market of noodle product where quality protein is an issue.

Relative humidity effect on encapsulation properties of coproducts obtained from wet milling of amaranth grain

The co-products of the amaranth starch extraction have recently aroused the interest of the industry, mainly due to their functional characteristics. In this paper, the encapsulating efficiencies of starch-enriched fraction (SEF) and native starch (NS) obtained, respectively, by dry or wet milling were studied. The storage humidity effect (11 to 84%, 21 days) on β-carotene retention were evaluated. Significant effects of amaranth protein present in SEF matrix on emulsification and subsequent retention of β-carotene were found. The best encapsulation performance was showed by ball milled starch enriched fraction (SEF-BM) fraction, with up to three times of total β-carotene content in comparison with the NS containing matrices. The glass transition temperature (Tg) of the samples decreased with the increase in relative humidity due to the plasticizing effect of the water. The starch-enriched amaranth fraction showed a high technological potential as an encapsulating agent and its own protein content served as a good emulsifier-stabilizer.