Date of Award

8-2007

Level of Access Assigned by Author

Open-Access Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Food Science

Advisor

Alfred A. Bushway

Second Committee Member

L. Brian Perkins

Third Committee Member

Vivian Wu

Abstract

Blueberries are high in phenolic acids and flavonoids, which make them one of the leading sources of antioxidants. When added to foods, antioxidants can increase shelf life, maintain nutritional quality, and retard production of heterocyclic amines in meats during cooking thus having the potential to be of great significance to the food industry. Soy and soy-based foods have been gaining in popularity as a functional food for specific health conditions. Increased media coverage touting the health benefits of soy has generated a rise in consumer awareness. Two soy-blueberry burgers were prepared using 10 and 15% blueberry puree. A soy burger with no blueberry puree was formulated as a control. Once the final recipe was determined, the soy-blueberry burgers were made in bulk, blast frozen and placed in frozen storage. Total phenolics were determined in triplicate from six samples. SAS and Tukey's (a=0.05) was utilized to determine the differences in total phenolics between cooked and uncooked samples of the burgers and the total phenolic change in the samples over time (uncooked). The differences in total phenolics were statistically different from each other (P = 0.05). The total phenolic changes in samples over time: 0, 3 and 6 months were statistically different from each other. Three sensory tests were conducted. A quantitative affective test was utilized to determine the overall liking for the soy-blueberry burger in regards to appearance, texture, and flavor. Overall appearance and texture were favored in the 10% burger in two of the three tests. All tests showed the same trends in flavor, overall acceptability, and preference with the 15% burger being favored. A lower sodium burger was utilized in the third sensory test. All burgers had a 30% reduction in sodium. These burgers had the highest overall acceptance in the study. To date, there are no vegetable burgers on the commercial market that combine the possible health benefits of soy and blueberries. The objectives of this research were 1) to develop a soy-blueberry burger that would promote a healthy diet and utilize Maine blueberries and 2) to determine the changes in anthocyanins and phenolics during storage and broiling.

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