Water properties in pâtés enriched with potato juice

Abstract

Freshly squeezed potato juice was used in the traditional European folk medicine. Potato juice can be introduced into food products both in its fresh as well as in thermally preserved form as a component of functional food. An attempt was made to analyse the impact of potato juice supplementation on qualitative and quantitative parameters characterising water bonds in poultry meat batters and pâtés. On the basis of temperature studies of water activity changes and spin–lattice and spin–spin relaxation times, the authors determined energy values of water transport in meat batters. It was found that supplementation with fresh potato juice limited significantly water transport. The performed analyses of temperature value changes of T2 spin–spin relaxation times revealed significant differences in the molecular dynamics of both water fractions in temperatures exceeding 50 °C. Measurement results of relaxation times in pâtés demonstrated that the amount of free water in relation to the amount of bound water in the examined systems depended on the addition of the probiotic factor and on the form in which it was added.