Nutritional and health benefits of seaweeds: Quantitative sensory evaluation of functional foods from Gracilaria edulis

摘要

The seaweeds, rich in proteins, vitamins, minerals and sulphated polysaccharides, provide soluble dietary fibers such as alginates, fucoidans and indigestible carbohydrates with low content of lipids and are considered as low-calorie foods. Seaweeds are the only source for the production of phycocolloids like agar, carrageenan and algin that have been used widely for decades in food, medicine and pharmacy industries. The seaweeds have immense biomedical potential and have been used in folk medicine.Seaweeds are rich sources of various types of antioxidant compounds. The seaweeds also possess rich minerals including iodine, essential for proper thyroid function. Though seaweeds are used as food in many countries, its consumption is negligible in India due to conservative food habits. Gracilaria edulis is being used since decades for making gruel in the coastal areas of Tamil Nadu. G. edulis, collected fresh from Rameswaram and dried, was added at 2% and 5% proportions to prepare Cutlet, Vadai, Biscuit, Thattai and Veg roll. The organoleptic characters of the prepared items were evaluated with the most widely used scale for measuring food acceptability, the 9-point hedonic scale, which was modified into a 10-point scale. The organoleptic propertiesof food have a determining effect on consumption and commercial success. None of the attributes was lower than 8 under hedonic scale i.e. 'Like Moderately'. The addition of G. edulis has not altered the quality of five food items, except the colour. Hence, it is suggested that the seaweed G. edulis could be used as an ingredient in all food items.