Feasibility Study of producing low calorie breakfast cake using apple fiber and guar gum

Over the recent decades, prevalence of obesity and obesity-related comorbidities such as coronary heart disease, diabetes, hypertension and certain types of cancer has resulted in growing demands for low-calorie foods. However, removal or reduction of high-calorie ingredients from food formulations adversely affect the sensory properties of the final product. The purpose of this study was to develop a low-calorie fiber-enriched breakfast cake with desirable organoleptic properties. To this end, different amounts of apple fiber (0, 10 and 20%) and guar gum (0, 0.5, and 1%) were incorporated into the formulation of a breakfast cake, and the physicochemical, textural, microbial and sensory properties of the resultant samples were investigated in comparison with the control sample. The findings showed that inclusion of apple fiber in formulation of breakfast cake was accompanied by decrease in protein and carbohydrate contents but the fat content was not affected significantly. Conversely, partially substitution of fat with guar gum did not influenced the aforementioned three parameters. While the highest hardness was obtained for the sample with the highest fiber and the least gum (sample T2), the lowest compression resistance was recorded for the sample containing the most gum and the least fiber (sample T2). Moreover, the storage duration had an increasing effect of the hardness of all the samples. Apple fiber and guar gum both decreased the calorie of the product but the former had a more pronounced effect, so that the sample with the highest fiber and gum (sample T6) showed the lowest calorie. The results of sensory evaluation revealed that the samples did not significantly differ in terms of taste, odor and color scores; however, the samples incorporated with higher apple fiber and lower guar gum had lower texture and total acceptance scores