Substitution of Tragacanth in Mayonnaise for Imported Stabilizers and Thickeners

Mayonnaise is a food emulsion containing egg yolk as emulsifier and some sort of gum as stabilizer. Iran is a main producer of tragacanth gum in the world which could be a potential replacement for imported gums used in making mayonnaise .The objective of this study was to investigate the possibility of substituting this gum for imported stabilizers in the formulation of mayonnaise sauce. To do this, tragacanth powder was added to the sauce at the levels of 0.1, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 and 1% . Emulsion stability and apparent viscosity of the sauces were determined and compared with that of the commercial one to find the right concentration of tragacanth. This concentration was used to produce mayonnaise on a commercial scale and then its physico-chemical characteristics, microbiological stability, and organoleptic properties were compared with commercial mayonnaise. The shelf-life of the sauce samples were also monitored bimonthly up to 4 months at two different temperatures (5 and 25 oC) by measuring apparent viscosity, moisture content, pH, microbial count, and organoleptic parameters. The results were compared with those obtained for commercial sauce. The results indicated that the characteristics of tragacanth-containing mayonnaise were similar to those of the commercial one and that the former was acceptable to consumers. Therefore, gum tragacanth at the right concentration could be a suitable subsitute for the stabilizers and thickeners already used in making mayonnaise sauce.