Dados do Trabalho

Título

IMPACT OF COOKING TECHNOLOGIES ON THE PROPERTIES OF PLANT-BASED BURGERS: AN UNTARGETED METABOLOMIC APPROACH

Introdução

Plant-based foods have become increasingly relevant for reasons involving animal welfare, environmental sustainability, health, and dietary trends. Proper cooking directly enhances their quality and desirable attributes. In this context, the present study aimed to evaluate the impact of different cooking technologies on the metabolomic profile of chickpea-based burgers and physicochemical properties.

Material e Métodos

The burgers were prepared using air fryer, oven, grill, and microwave, and were evaluated for their chemical profile, mass loss, shrinkage, moisture content, and color. Untargeted metabolomic data were acquired by extracting lyophilized samples with a methanol-water solution, followed by analysis using UHPLC-QTOF-MS. Data filtering and analysis were conducted using R. Initially, features that did not exhibit at least a 10-fold increase in quality control samples (QCs) compared to process blanks were excluded from the analysis. Subsequently, the analysis was limited to features present in 100% of the QCs and features with a coefficient of variation lower than 30% in the QCs. All data were log2-transformed and median-centered prior to analysis. Differential analysis was performed using an unpaired t-test (p < 0.05) with the Benjamini-Hochberg false discovery rate multiple testing correction.

Resultados e Discussão

Among the cooking methods, microwave resulted in the highest mass loss, greatest thickness variation, and lowest moisture retention. Conversely, samples cooked via air fryer and grill showed the most significant color differences compared to raw samples, associated with browned pigments formed due to the Maillard reaction. Regarding the chemical profile, 3733 features were obtained after filtering. Principal component analysis revealed substantial differences between raw and cooked burgers, with minimal contrast among samples cooked using the different methods. For example, raw burgers exhibited significantly higher concentrations of 118 metabolites compared to those cooked on the grill. These findings suggest that employing various cooking techniques for burger preparation is feasible without compromising their chemical profile. Regarding sensory attributes, products cooked with air fryer or grill yielded the most visually appealing results.

Conclusão

Considering these findings, the next steps involve identifying the key metabolites in raw and processed samples and conducting further comparisons among the different technologies to better understand the mechanisms involved in each cooking process.