Effects of chia seed extract on chemical and sensory properties of sweet cream butter during refrigerated storage

Butter is a type of dairy product made of sweet cream or sour cream. It is a perishable food that can be spoiled due to chemical changes during storage. Rancidity is one of the main problems caused by lipolysis and oxidation of fatty acids, which cause off-flavor and reduce the nutritional quality of butter. By adding low concentrations of antioxidant compounds, autooxidation can be prevented or delayed. It is also possible to increase the shelf life of butter by adding antioxidants. However, the carcinogenic effect of some synthetic antioxidants and consumer preference has led manufacturers to use more natural antioxidants. Chia seeds contain significant amounts of protein, fat, carbohydrates, minerals, and vitamins. Moreover, many bioactive compounds with high antioxidant potential are found in chia seeds such as phenolic acids, flavonoids, tocopherols, and sterols. Therefore, the present study was conducted to investigate the effects of chia seed extract in sweet cream butter to improve its chemical and sensory properties during refrigeration storage. 

For this purpose, the alcoholic extract of chia seed was prepared by adding chia seed powder to 70% ethanol (5% w/v) with stirring for 24 h, at room temperature. The filtered extracts were concentrated with a rotary evaporator. The concentrated mixture was dried in an oven at 40 °C and kept in an amber glass container in the refrigerator at 4 °C until the experiment was performed. Total phenolics content and antioxidant activity of chia seed extract were evaluated by the Folin–Ciocalteu colorimetric method using gallic acid as standard and for free radical scavenging ability by DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl) method, respectively. Then, chia seed extract was added to butter with different percentages (0.05, 0.1, 0.25, and 0.5%) and its effects on chemical properties including acidity, acid value, peroxide value, and thiobarbituric acid were evaluated for two months at 15-day intervals in refrigerated storage. Also, sensory properties including color, odor, taste, texture, and overall acceptance of butter samples were assessed using 15 untrained evaluators based on a 5-point hedonic test as above conditions. The results were reported as means± standard deviation and they were analyzed with analysis of variance using the software SPSS version 14. Statistical differences were analyzed by Duncan’s multiple range test (p<0.05). 

The results of total polyphenols content were 1108.78 ± 111.79 mg gallic acid per 100 g of extract and radical scavenging activity of chia seed extract in the concentration range of 4 to 20% was 35.17 ± 0.47 to 64.92 ± 2.95%. Also, the efficient concentration (EC50) of chia seed extract was 12.13 ± 0.59 mg/L in this study. It is known that the smaller the EC50, it will be the greater the antioxidant or free radical scavenging activity. According to the results, it was found that the concentration of chia extract has a significant effect on free radical scavenging (p<0.05) so that with increasing the concentration of the extract, its inhibitory properties increased. The results showed that the addition of different concentrations of chia seed extract and storage time were significant on the acidity and acid value of butter samples so that with increasing the amount of chia seed extract in treatments, the amounts of acidity and acid value increased significantly (p<0.05). Also, the acidity and acid value in all samples of butter increased significantly with increasing storage time during refrigeration (p<0.05). However, the amount of these two indices in treatments containing chia extract increased at a slower rate than the control sample during storage time, which could be due to the effect of phenolic compounds in chia seed extract in controlling the activity of lipolytic enzymes. Moreover, the results revealed that with increasing the concentration of the chia seed extract from the 15th day to the end of the storage period, the amounts of peroxide value and thiobarbituric acid of butter treatments significantly decreased compared to the control sample (p<0.05). This is due to the antioxidant effects of phenolic compounds in chia seed extract that delay the oxidation process. In this study, all chemical indices increased significantly during the storage time (p<0.05). All the samples in evaluated sensory properties were significantly different from the control sample (except odor) during 60 days of storage (p<0.05), in this way treatments had better sensory scores in color and taste properties compared to the control. In general, a concentration of 0.5% chia extract delayed oxidative damage, but in terms of sensory evaluation, a treatment containing 0.25% chia extract is selected and introduced as the most desirable treatment.