Study of using Xanthan and Tragacanth (Katira) as Fat replacement in low fat French salad dressing

Salad dressings due to their gustatory and nutritious have been very often used in many food products. Traditional dressings usually contain large amount of fat (20-65 Wt %) that may cause several chronic disease. Reduction of its content in such systems in most cases lead to their physical destabilization and causes worsening of sensory properties. The objective of this study was to use two types of hydrocolloids (xanthan and tragacanth) as fat replacement in low fat French salad dressing. Model reduced fat French salad dressing containing 24-19-14 wt % vegetable fat and stabilized by 0.25-0.5-0.7 wt % mixture of xanthan and tragacanth were investigated and commercial French salad dressing with 40 wt % oil vegetable fat and stabilized by 0.2 wt % xanthan was used as a control experiments. Physicochemical, apparent viscosity and sensory evaluation of samples were performed. The result indicated that all low fat French salad dressings had significantly lower energy content. All samples exhibited pesudoplastic behavior. Sensory evaluation demonstrated that samples with 24 wt % oil and 0.7 wt % mixtures of both gums and samples with 14 wt % oil and 0.25 wt % mixtures of both gums were acceptable. This study shows good potential for mixture of xanthan and tragacanth to be used as fat replacement in French salad dressing

Keywords:

Salad dressing , Fat replacement , Xanthan , Tragacanth