Improvement of Physicochemical, Textural and Quality Attributes of Chicken Kebabs Using Infrared-dried Sprouted Wheat Flour

Kebab is a food product containing at least 70% animal minced meat. Sprouted wheat flour is a valuable natural source for enhancing nutritional values and improving sensory attributes of food products such as chicken kebabs. Combining ultrasonic and infrared processes decreases drying time and improves product quality. 

In this study, physicochemical characteristics (moisture, ash, acidity, pH, lightness, redness, yellowness and density), phenolic content, textural characteristics (puncture and texture profile analysis assays) and sensorial attributes of chicken kebabs containing various substitution levels of sonicated and infrared-dried sprouted wheat flour were investigated.

Chicken kebabs with sprouted wheat flour included higher total phenolic contents than the control sample. Complete replacement of sprouted wheat flour with breadcrumbs increased acidity, redness index, density, firmness, cohesiveness, springiness and chewiness of baked chicken kebabs and decreased moisture content, ash content, pH and lightness index of kebabs. However, no statistically significant differences were seen between the kebabs for density, texture hardness, cohesiveness and springiness (p > 0.05). The average total phenolic contents of prepared kebabs containing 0, 50 and 100% of sprouted wheat flour were 439.98, 466.50 and 757.57 μg GA/g, respectively.

Based on the sensory assessment results, sprouted wheat flour is recommended for chicken kebab preparation due to its superior appearance, flavor, texture and overall acceptability scores.